NOTES FROM REDCAR. 91 



by year curtailed and encroached upon by the never-ending "river 

 improvement" of the Conservancy Commissioners. 



I saw the first Wild Geese on September 23rd ; a " grey 

 goose" was shot on Cowpen Marsh on October 4th. Hooded 

 Crows were a day or two before the usual time, October 3rd 

 seeing the first flight. 



A fuller account of the annual migration at Kedcar will be 

 found in the following notes, taken from my journal, between the 

 beginning of July and the end of October. 



About June 30th a Common Skua, L. catarractes, was seen by 

 one of the fishermen while out at sea. On July 1st the same 

 man saw what, from his description of it, I have no doubt was a 

 Sand Grouse ; it was on Coatham Sands, and allowed him to 

 approach within ten yards. From the 4th to the 7th, on each 

 day, a few Godwits and Whimbrels passed — the advance guards 

 of the large flocks which we see towards the end of August. On 

 the 12th, at 8.30 p.m., I saw a large flock of Skuas (I think 

 Eichardson's), flying W., high overhead. At 7.30 p.m. on the 

 18th a flock of Whimbrels passed. On the 25th, several flocks 

 of Curlews going W. 



On August 1st two friends of mine, shooting on Cowpen and 

 Salthouse Marshes, bagged nine Shovellers, all young birds bred 

 on the place. Nine Herons passed from eastward on the 3rd. 

 On the 6th my friend Mr. E. B. Emerson shot a Wood Sandpiper 

 — an adult bird, but the sex indistinguishable, — on Coatham 

 Marsh. According to the authors of the ' Handbook to the York- 

 shire Vertebrate Fauna,' this will be the seventh recorded occur- 

 rence of this species in this county. On the 9th, a strong N. gale 

 blowing, the first migrant Oystercatchers seen, a flock of about a 

 dozen passing from the east. 



On the 13th August I shot a splendid Eed-throated Diver, in 

 full summer plumage ; it came from E . and flew over the boat, 

 only to receive its death-warrant. This is an early date on which 

 to meet with this species on our part of the coast, the usual time 

 of its appearance being the latter end of September, although 

 both C. glacialis and C. septentrionalis came southward at least a 

 fortnight or three weeks earlier than usual. On the 15th I saw 

 an immature Eichardson's Skua, dark plumaged, out at sea — the 

 first I had seen of the autumn contingent. I saw the first 

 Sanderling of the season on the 16th, at the Tees-mouth, and 



