24 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
ordinary number of old and young, every third bird would be an old one, 
supposing all the young birds grew up; but how different is the case, 
not one in fifty being adult! It would be wrong to suppose that because 
young Wood Sandpipers, Green Sandpipers and Ruffs are met with so early 
in the season they have therefore been bred in this country. They are 
simply passing on their regular autumnal migration, just as the Common 
Sandpiper leaves us so soon as the young are able to fly well. A few hundred 
miles are nothing to these birds. The three species just named breed com- 
paratively near us, whilst the Common Godwit, Knot and Sanderling, which I 
believe breed exclusively within the Arctic Circle arrive only a few days after 
them. It seems quite possible the three first-named species were attracted on 
their migration by the unusual quantity of fresh water on the grass-lands.— 
Cuartes Murray Apamson (North Lesmond, Newcastle-on-Tyne). 
Hoopors near SarisBury.—I send the following account of the occur- 
rence of six Hoopoes which were seen in this neighbourhood during the 
month of June last, and which account I believe to be thoroughly trustworthy, 
having seen and questioned the eye-witness myself. A young man named 
William Holbeck, who knows well all the common birds of our district, was 
floating gently down the river in a boat, about two miles and a half from 
Salisbury, when he was attracted by the sight of some curious birds that he 
had never seen before. They were flitting about some osier-beds on some 
little islands in the middle of the stream. They consisted apparently of 
two old birds and four young ones, the younger birds having the appearance 
of having scarcely reached their full feathering, and being more distinctly 
marked than the old ones. He watched them closely for some ten 
minutes, during which time they took little or no notice of him, the 
two old birds flitting on in front and uttering a kind of chirping noise 
as they apparently hunted for insects and caterpillars on the willows, 
and the younger birds following them. He came home in a great state of 
excitement, and begged Mr. Norwood, the head man in his office, to come 
out at once with his gun and secure some of them, as they were birds he 
had never seen before, and which he felt sure must be rare ones. He 
described them as being about the same size as Thrushes and as being 
barred with black and white on the back and tail, the old birds having a 
splendid top-knot, which they every now and then extended “ in this way "— 
t. e. holding up his hand and spreading out his fingers apart from each other 
as he said so. Mr. Norwood (who is himself an ardent ornithologist and 
birdstuffer, and from whom Holbeck had gathered a good deal of information 
about birds) brought out Morris’s book of birds, and showed him several of 
the plates before he turned to the Hoopoe, which bird he told me, from his 
clerk’s description, he at once conjectured they were; but directly he turned 
to the picture of the Hoopoe, Holbeck, with much emphasis, declared, 
