NOTES AND QUERIES. 177 



Pectoral Sandpiper in Dumbartonshire. — I have recently had an 

 opportunity of inspecting a specimen of the American Pectoral Sandpiper, 

 Tringa metadata, Vieillot, which was shot by Sir George Leith Buchanan 

 on the 24th November last in the neighbourhood of his residence, Ross 

 Priory, Alexandria, N.B. In a note which he addressed to the Editor of 

 ' The Field,' published in that journal on the 2nd December last, referring 

 to this bird, he says : — " It rose from some rushes, and I took it for a Jack 

 Snipe until I picked it up. As it was blowing hard at the time, with snow 

 and rain, I could not see distinctly." It is a rare straggler to the British 

 Islands, and from the dates recorded of the few specimens which have 

 been procured here (some sixteen in number) it would seem to have been 

 almost invariably met with in autumn, generally in September and October . 

 — J. E. Habting. 



Singular Accident to a Bearded Tit. — Mr. Long's account (p. 123) 

 of a Robin whose lower mandible became caught in the " skin of the neck 

 and along the sternum " reminds me of a similar case which recently came 

 within my experience. On visiting my aviary one morning about nine 

 o'clock, I found a favourite Bearded Tit sitting in one corner of the cage, 

 its neck arched, its chin tucked in, the upper mandible at right angles to 

 the breast, and the lower one apparently gone. On catching the bird and 

 examining it, I found that the lower mandible was, as described by Mr. 

 Long, embedded in the skin of the breast. I at once extricated and 

 straightened it as well as I could, for it was terribly bent. The bird on 

 being released at once went to the water and drank freely, and in two or 

 three days had quite recovered, its bill having returned to its normal shape. 

 I must add that the bird's breast was completely saturated by saliva, the 

 escape of which it was powerless to prevent. — John Young (Bayswater). 



Montagu's Harrier in Ireland : Correction of Error. — At page 32 I 

 communicated a note on a Harrier which has been preserved at Brittas 

 since 1855 under the above name. Having recently obtained this bird 

 through the kindness of Mrs. Dunne, and submitted it to Mr. A. G. 

 More, I am informed by him that it is not Circus cineraceus but C. cyaneus. 

 — R. J. Ussher (Cappagh, Co. Waterford). 



Corn Crake in Winter.— On December 15th, 1882, I received from 

 John Evans, of Bourne, a male specimen of Crex pratetisis, which had 

 been recently caught at Thurlby, near that town. This bird was much 

 paler in appearance than usual, and very emaciated, although the stomach 

 was full of snails (Helix hispida), which were whole, although the epidermis 

 was destroyed by the fluids of the stomach. The humerus of the right 

 wing evidently had been broken at some time and knit together again, but 

 not in a straight line, the junction being about three-eighths of an inch 

 from the fracture, and at an angle, thereby shortening the bone considerably, 



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