6 CORDEAUX : HUMBER ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



close to him, and afterwards put them up, when they flew off, 

 caUing at the time. Skelton, whom I have known for many 

 years as a coast-shooter, is well acquainted with Sand-Grouse, 

 having shot them in 1863, and again in 1888. He is a grand- 

 son of old Skelton, the decoy-man, and was born at Friskney, 

 and assisted, as a boy, in the old decoy at Dersingham, 

 Norfolk. 



Knot {Tringa canutiis). August 29th, five to six hundred in 

 a very compact flock on the Humber muds. I had a long look 

 at them from the embankment with a telescope; all seemed 

 young birds of the year, with buffish breasts, and it was evident 

 they were a fresh arrival on the coast. On the 31st I was 

 fortunate in seeing a flock of twenty-five to thirty Knots, in 

 summer plumage, on the wing, along the coast near Theddle- 

 thorpe. They had exactly the appearance of a small red cloud 

 drifting over the sea. 



Sandwich Tern {Sterna cantiaca). Fishermen have reported 

 extraordinary numbers on the wing with other Terns, at 

 sea. On August 31st, I saw several flocks of Sandwich Tern 

 come in, at low water, to rest on one of the sand-banks off the 

 coast, to which I had walked and waded out. Some were birds 

 of the year, black -spotted ; the majority, adults; lovely birds, 

 seen at fairly close quarters through a glass. They had, however, 

 quite lost the salmon-pink of the under side. Their cry is loud 

 and grating. I saw several Arctic and Common Tern during 

 the day. 



Arctic Skua {Stej-corarius crepidaius). August 31st, several 

 seen to-day off the coast, or beating to and fro above the 

 sand-banks, without exception young birds in the dark-brown 

 plumage of immaturity. They were very graceful and active on 

 the wing ; very considerable numbers have been reported, and 

 several brought in to the bird-stuffers. A young Arctic Skua, 

 shot on the Humber waters, which I saw in the flesh, had 

 the head, neck, and breast a pale cinnamon, with narrow 

 streaks of brown down the shaft of each feather. 



Sanderling {Calidris are7iarid). I saw a few on August 28th, 

 and numerously on the 31st, along the coast between Mable- 

 thorpe and Saltfleet. 



Storm Petrel {Procellaria pelagica). August 20th, a pair 

 seen at sea off Spurn about this date, fluttering and beating 

 for food round a fishing-boat at the time the men were hauling 

 in their crab-pots. This is a very early occurrence. 



Naturalist, 



