. MACPHERSON : BIRD-NOTES FROM LANCASHIRE. 235 



'Preston, September 4th, 1842. — On Tuesday last I killed 

 a young Sanderling \_Calidris are}iana\ and saw about ten young 

 Black Terns \_Hydrochelidoti iiigra\ but did not get any. Went over 

 the same ground and much more on Friday ; saw nothing except 

 two Bar-tailed Godwits. Went out again on Saturday (yesterday) 

 afternoon ; saw a Spotted Redshank \Totanus fusais\ it came up the 

 river and sat down upon a piece of open sand at the foot of a small 

 brook. When I attempted to approach it, it rose and took quite 

 across the fields, leaving the river altogether, and I saw no more of it.' 



' Preston, November 12th, 1842. — I have done nothing myself 

 this autumn. The best bird I killed was a Greenshank \Totamis 

 canescens\ I got another from a person one day when I was out 

 shooting in the last week of September ; it was a very large specimen, 

 and from the hardness of its bones appeared to be an old bird. . . . 

 In a letter I had from my son-in-law, who is at Newark-on-Trent, he 

 tells me that a Kite \_Miivus ictimis] was killed close to the town, 

 and a little Bustard ^Otis tetrax] was killed about two months 

 before, not far from that place.' 



' Preston, June 5th, 1843. — ^ ^""i sorry to say I have not been 

 able to get a single Dotterel \^Eudro?nias morineHns] this spring, 

 although I exerted myself to do so, having had an order for several. 

 I saw three, probably the remnant of a flock that had been shot 

 away ; they were wild. I had a shot at one, but missed it, and 

 never had another chance. There had been seven in the market, 

 but I did not get any of them. Six were purchased for the table all 

 at once ; the odd bird was bought by an angler for its feathers. 

 I was down upon the coast last week, and crossed over to Bardsea 

 from Fleetwood, It came on wet. I went up to Ulverston and 

 stopped several days. It rained all the time, and I could not get 

 out. When I came down on Friday morning to return by the 

 steamer, it was fair, and I strolled down the shore a few miles in the 

 direction of Foulney and Walney, and met a few Terns coming up 

 with the tide ; shot two. They were Arctic Terns \_Sterna macrura], 

 and by the state of the belly were evidently breeding. ... I have 

 shot nothing this spring worth notice, except a Whimbrel \Nunienitis 

 phceopus\ a female continental "\\'agtail {Motacilla alba), and a Black 

 Tern [Hydrochelidoti 7iigra'\ — all good specimens. The Whimbrels 

 were plentiful, but very wild. I wounded two others, but lost them 

 both.' 



'Preston, January 28th, 1S44. — I have fallen in with the Rock 

 Pipit \A71thus obscuriis\ on the banks of the Ribble this winter, and 

 have killed four, wounded another (which I lost), and saw two or 

 three more. . . . They are very like the Tit-Lark in their habits and 



August 1890. 



