ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM CUMBERLAND. 
By tHe Rey. H. A. Maceuerson, M.A. 
Since August, 1888, I have spent more time than ever in 
working at all parts of our faunal area, but notwithstanding 
almost daily railway journeys to the coast, and an active 
correspondence, the results are not commensurate with the 
labour bestowed. 
As regards Westmoreland, indeed, the least common birds 
that have come under my notice are the Bittern, Red-throated 
and Great Northern Divers, all killed in that county ; a specimen 
of the second species named having been killed by telegraph- 
wires near Kendal, and others obtained on the coast. 
With regard to Cumberland the case is brighter. The 
Shoveller nested with us as in previous years, and several young 
birds were killed by flight-shooters in August. A tolerable 
number of Waders visited our estuaries during that and the 
following month. It was numerically a poor autumn for the 
LIimicole, Grey Plover and Bar-tailed Godwits being far less 
plentiful than in 1887, though I saw a very large flock of the 
latter species on Christmas-eve, when usually only small parties 
are to be seen. A few Greenshanks, Ruffs, Curlew Sandpipers 
and Little Stints accompanied the commoner birds. The Ruffs* 
I generally found associating with Peewits, and the Little Stints 
with Dunlins. 
August 20th was a red-letter day for us, for one of our local 
gunners, whom I had long encouraged to search for Totanus 
fuscus, succeeded in shooting an immature specimen of that wary 
wader. No occurrence of this species had been authenticated in 
Cumberland for more than fifty years, though I know of a more 
recent example killed in the adjoining county, and shown to one 
of my friends as a “dusky retainer’’ (?). The late James Cooper 
informed Mr. Adamson that Mr. Heysham obtained one in 1829 
and saw another in 1833 (‘Birds of Cumberland,’ p. 159); but 
my examination of the Heysham MSS. showed that the first bird 
was shot on October 13th, 1830, and that it was in 1834 that 
Cooper saw another. 
* The occurrence of the Ruff in England in mid-winter is noteworthy as 
being unusual. See ‘ The Naturalist,’ 1889, pp. 78, 79.—Eb. 
