TuE ZooLocist—AvuG UST, 1876. 50381 
Puffin.—I observed the running power of the puffin, mentioned 
by Mr. Tuck in the June number of the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. 8. 4958), 
and that the bird took the air without changing the upright position 
of its body, only gaining a horizontal attitude after a rapid descent 
of some feet and hard flapping. This bird waddles much in 
running, and gives one the impression of being bow-legged. At 
the date above named (June 2, 1875) I saw no young birds, and 
all the eggs taken were fresh or nearly so. 
Black Guillemot.—I saw no black guillemots at Handa, though 
a friend tells me he found them further north. 
Habit of the Common Sandpiper.—The following incident 
struck me as unusual at the time I witnessed it, and I should be 
glad of any confirmatory observations from your readers :—On the 
11th of May, this year, I flushed a pair of the common sandpiper 
from one side of a tiny bay of a Scotch loch. The birds crossed 
to a low rocky point on the other side of the bay with apparently 
the intention of settling, and had almost reached their destination 
when a merlin dashed at them from the last stone on which it had 
been sitting so motionless as to escape both their attention and my 
own. For some seconds the doubling and turning was incessant, 
the falcon keeping them together, and preventing either from 
escaping, and all three being within a few inches of the surface of 
the loch. Suddenly the bird which he seemed in the very act of 
grasping dived from the wing most curiously, without any apparent 
splash. The merlin instantly turned upon the second, which was 
perhaps three yards distant, and which immediately acted in a 
similar manner: after hovering for a moment over the spot where 
his quarry had vanished, the falcon flew off, and first one and then 
the other sandpiper rose, sat on the surface for a little, whistled to 
one another, and taking wing came straight towards me and 
alighted just where they started from. The distance traversed 
under water was about six yards. If this is a common habit, as 
I imagine it is, of this bird, it explains the apparent immunity it 
seems to enjoy from destruction by hawks; for whilst one is sure 
to come across remains of curlew, grouse, lapwing, or golden 
plover in an how’s ramble in Sutherland,—so killed and picked 
that a hawk’s work is recognised,—I never saw remains of this, 
the commonest bird of all. Can any of your readers say if this bird 
breeds along the Thames? One is almost sure to flush them 
whilst boating any day between May and August; I heard one 
