ORNITHOLOGY OF COENWALL. 207 



is one of our rarest British species, and the first example that 

 has come under my notice as a Cornish specimen. 



"Pratincole at the Lizard, Cornwall. — I had an opportunity, 

 yesterday, of handling an adult full-plumaged bird of this 

 species, which was captured near the Lizard on Monday last. 

 There was nothing peculiar in the colour of the plumage from 

 the general description of the adult bird by Mr. Yarrell. I 

 may remark, however, that instead of being ten inches in 

 length, this bird was fully ten and a half inches, the wings 

 exceeding the tail by at least half an inch ; the exterior tail 

 feathers taper away into almost a filament. In handling the 

 bird in the flesh, it was quite bewildering to try to reconcile 

 its characters to the place it ought to take in our British 

 Avifauna ; for in the character of its beak you could under- 

 stand its claim to the family of Swallows ; we must take leave 

 of the forked tail as a character of the Swallow tribe, and 

 allow this feature to claim its kindred to the Terns, with which 

 it has been associated ; but when you look at the feet and tarsi 

 and the naked part of the tibioe, you are at once drawn to the 

 Stints and Sandpipers, with which it has been associated, and 

 then, knowing that the bird is found on open-downs and dry 

 pastures, and that it has extraordinary cursorial powers, with a 

 tone of plumage and mode of flight not unlike the common 

 Dotterel, you are tempted to be reconciled to the place now 

 allotted to it by our naturalists, by the side of Plovers. There 

 is a record of the Pratincole having been obtained in Cornwall 

 once or twice, many years ago ; but this is the first exa,mple of a 

 bird in the flesh coming imder my notice — 10th Jime, 1874." 



"The bird was observed by a boy, who was Coot shooting, 

 flying backwards and forwards over a large pool on the Lizard 

 downs, exactly like the swallow tribe, and apparently hawking 

 for insects. It alighted for a time on the margin of the pool, 

 where it was shot. Sex, male." 



The Skuas (Lestris), a family allied to the Q-ulls, but partaking 

 of the propensities and natxu-e of birds of prey, appear occa- 

 sionally on our shores. Their practice is to pursue and harass 

 GuUs and make them disgorge their food, which they seize in 

 the act of falling. We have four sjDecies gradually decreasing 

 in size, and the smallest is the rarest of the lot. I procured one 

 in 1833, and Mr. M. H. Williams, of Tredrea, wrote me word 



