5168 Tuer ZooLocist—NoveEMBER, 1876. 
Green Sandpipers near Beverley—Lvery year in August, as regularly as 
the month comes round, I hear the well-known whistle of the green sand- 
piper as—generally single birds and usually in the day time—they 
are passing over this district. From the beginning of August until the 
spring they are more or less frequently met with here in the shallow drains, 
and occasionally on the sea-coast. . They are of course most plentiful in 
early autumn, getting scarcer as winter approaches, and the few stragglers 
found in severe weather have probably come from other districts. They 
resemble snipes in this respect, that, having become located in a certain 
place, they are very loth to leave, and generally remain until shot. I have 
never either seen or heard of one having been shot in this district at any 
other period of the year than that above mentioned; but Mr. Roberts, 
of Scarborough, states that he has received these birds, shot at Hun- 
manby, in June, and which statement has, I believe, appeared in one or 
two works on Ornithology. I am sorry to say that my endeavours to 
establish the fact of the green sandpiper breeding in East Yorkshire have 
hitherto failed. I know the present keeper at Hunmanby well, and I have 
asked him particularly, both this June and last, to watch carefully for these 
birds, and, should they make their appearance, at once to let me hear 
about it; but he assures me that no such birds are to be found there at 
that season, so I fear the late keeper—Roberts by name, and whose 
address I have never been able to obtain—has shot the birds most likely 
to have bred in England. Many statements have been made from time 
to time expressing belief that these birds do breed here, yet they are 
always without proof, and are most likely to mislead; as, for instance, 
Dr. Bree, in the ‘ Field,’ some time ago, stated he had long been of opinion 
that these birds bred here, yet he never advanced a single bit of testimony 
in support of his statement. Mr. G. I’. Mathew, too, in the ‘ Zoologist’ 
(S.§. 4159), when mentioning having seen three of these birds near Instow 
in August, after saying two of them seemed to possess much lighter 
plumage than the third, adds, “and I have no doubt were bred somewhere 
in the neighbourhood.” Of course these gentlemen know these statements 
go for what they are worth, and I hope they will not think that I have 
turned critic. I only mention them lest they should mislead younger 
naturalists, for, shorn of these and many other similar statements, I believe 
the fact remains that up to the present time it has not been proved that 
these birds have ever bred in this country.—F’. Boyes. 
Rust-colour on the Breast of Teal—tI think Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., in 
referring to the teal mentioned by Mr. Sclater (S.S. 4816) as “having its 
breast so red as to have the appearance of being stained with blood,” seems 
to consider it rarer than it really is. I have seen the same colour, though 
not in such degree, not only on the teal, but also on the common wild duck, 
pintail, pochard, &c. By far the most rufous specimen I ever came across 
