TuE Zoo.ocist—FEBRUARY, 1876. 4779 
the most favourable conditions for large arrivals of migrants on 
the headland. 
Dipper.—Two have been shot during the autumn on small 
streams near this place; both belong to the English form (Cinclus 
aquaticus, Bechstein), having the lower part of the breast chestnut- 
brown. 
Bartailed Godwit.—Godwits have been extremely abundant on 
our coast during the autumn and up to the close of the year. A 
blacktailed godwit, a female, was shot at Spurn during the 
autumn. It is the only occurrence of this species which has come 
under my notice at this season, during a period of twenty years. 
Purple Sandpiper.— December 7th. Shot an example this 
morning from the foot of. the Humber embankment in this parish. 
They are rarely met with within the river, although common enough 
at Spurn and along the coast in the fall. 
Scaup and Goldeneye Duck.—The young of both sexes have 
been extremely abundant on the river. Old females, both scaup 
and goldeneye, much less commonly met with; rarer still is the old 
male scaup. I have not, this season, met with a single example of 
the old male goldeneye. In the dusk of evening we not unfrequently 
hear goldeneyes passing over this place on their way to some 
inland feeding-grounds: they return to the river before daylight 
in the morning. 
Bullfinch.— Perhaps the most marked ornithological feature, 
during the last two months, has been the great abundance of these 
beautiful birds. We find them in almost every garden, and hear 
their plaintive note from each hedgerow and copse: they are 
certainly far in excess of our local residents, and appear slightly 
larger and more richly coloured than local birds. 
Snipe.—Were abundant early in December, during the frost 
and snow, in all their usual haunts. On the night of the 9th of 
December there was a thaw, and on the 8th, on walking over 
ground where on the previous day they were numerous, I only 
succeeded in killing three full snipe and two jacks. There is no 
_bird more sensitive to changes of the weather than the snipe—one 
day in certain localities most abundant, the next all are gone. In 
this case our snipe had not gone far, or left the district, and since 
the breaking up of the frost till this time have always been found 
during the day amongst turnips, or rather congregated in the 
moistest and softest places in the turnip-fields, rising very wildly 
