286 SCOLOPACIDiE. 



two species and godwits ; in a single instance with redshanks and 

 knots. 



The numbers vary much in different years. In 1838 they were 

 remarkably scarce ; an intelligent shooter, always on the look-out, 

 observing them but twice : one on the 3rd of September, and 

 none again until the 23rd of October, when four appeared. In 

 1845, one only was killed ; a few others were heard during the 

 last week of August that year. In 1846, but two were seen 

 until the 10th of October, on which day one was killed ; the other 

 had been procured on the 26th of September. In the autumn 

 of 1837 they were more common than usual in the bay, and 

 numbers were shot s* a flock of about twenty birds was once 

 seen, and out of a party of eight, six were killed at one discharge. 

 My informant (who has supplied me with many specimens) dis- 

 tinguishes this species from the dunlin when on the ground, by 

 its superior size ; — in flight, from the lower part of the back 

 being white, or by its call, which is very different from that of its 

 congener, and is said more to resemble that of the turnstone than 

 of other shore birds. In 1839 they were more plentiful than 

 ever before known, and arrived before the ordinary time, a couple 

 having been shot on the 2nd of September. On the 7th of that 

 month a flock of from thirty to forty appeared, and they increased 

 until the 21st, when not less than a hundred were seen in com- 

 pany with a large body of dunlins, though generally when a 

 number are together, they do not associate with other species : 

 occasionally about fifty or sixty would rise together from one 

 extremity of the flock, and after flying about for a short time 

 would alight with the others. The noise produced by their calls, 

 especially when on wing, was very great, and described to me as 

 a " kind of chatter/' most unlike the note of the dunlin. This 

 large body subsequently proved to have been collected together 

 for migration, as they took their departure on that clay from the 



* On the English shores, also, they would seem to have been more common than 

 usual at this time, as Mr. Yarrell remarks that " more than twenty were exposed 

 for sale on the same day in Lcadeuhall Market, London, in September 1837." — 

 'Brit. Birds,' vol. ii. p. 627. 



