835 



1885.] MR. H. E. DRFSSICR ON .EGIAMTIS VOCIFERA. 



Mr. Sclater remarked that this species wasof interest to naturalists 

 as having been fornierlv supposed, through an error of the late 

 Dr. J. E. Gray, to occur in Great Britain, and accordingly retained 

 in the British fauna until M. Lataste (Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, 

 1877, p. 359) had shown the mistake. The present specimens 

 confirmed the locality assigned to the species by M. Lataste, and, 

 besides this, Mr. Boulenger had informed Mr. Sclater that the 

 British Museum had recently received a specimen of this Newt 

 from Trebizond, and that it had been found by Kessler near Poti 

 in Transcaucasia, and at Resht in Persia. 



Mr. H. E. Dresser exhibited a specimen of the American Killdeer 

 Plover {Mgialitis vocifera), shot by Mr. F. Jenkinson at Tresco, 

 Scilly. on the 14th January last, this being the second record ot its 

 occurrence in Great Britain '. Mr. Jenkinson had given lum the 

 following particulars of its capture, viz. :— "On Sunday, 1 1th January, 

 1885, I was walking home by the Long Pool on Tresco, and in- 

 stinctively stopped to look at a favourite bit of mud and rushes at the 

 west end. While I was looking, a bird flitted a few yards and settled 

 on the grass between me and The mud ; and as it did so it uttered a 

 gentle half note which I felt sure belonged to no bu-d that I had 



seen before. „ , ^ • ^ 



" It was tame enough, and remained about for three days, its return 

 to that particular spot apparently coinciding each day with the rise 

 of the tide. On Monday I missed it, sitting at 25 yards after a long 

 crawl. I half hoped that the keeper, who is a belter shot than I 

 am, would go after it, so I did not disturb it much. On Tuesday I 

 put it up unexpectedly within a yard or two of me from behind a 

 wall where 1 was waiting. The chestnut tail-coverts were very 

 distinct as it flew away, uttering cries veritably " vociferous, but 

 very plaintive and musical. I did not fire at it on that occasion 

 Next dav I began by shooting a Ring Dotterel by mistake ; 1 could 

 not see the other anywhere ; the day wore on, and 1 had to leave 

 next morning. It was getting quite late when, walking up to the 

 other end of the pool, I saw, beyond a raised causeway which crosses 

 the pool there, a bird running on the wet ground. I fired instantly 

 and the i^ird just uttered one characteristic cry, which assured me 

 that it was the one of which I was in search, and lay there dead 



" The name Killdeer Plover at once occurred to me ; and next day 

 I found a small book on American birds, and on reading the de- 

 scription of that species I found that it agreed with my specimen. 

 The bird was a female in good plump condition, and quite the 

 reverse of an exhausted straggler." r u- u i j 



Mr Dresser stated that the specimen, the occurrence of which had 

 been already recorded in the ' Zoologist,' 188.i, p. 113, had been 

 handed to him by Mr. Jenkinson with a request that he would 

 exhil)it it, so that there should be no doubt as to its being referable 



to JiqialUis rncifera. ^ , <^,, i r .i 



Ml. Dresser was also indebted to Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, tor the 



1 For 11 previous record see Ibis, 18t52. p. 275. 



