300 SCOLOPACHLE. 



1840, a stint was seen on the 26th of August: in 1841, one 

 had come on the 3rd of September and four on the 11th of that 

 month. 



Owing perhaps to my neglect, I find no notes of the occurrence 

 of the species in 1842 or 1843. On the 24th of September, 



1844, I received a stint which was killed that day in the bay, 

 at the same shot with two pigmy curlews and twenty -four dunlins. 

 On the 8th of December the same year, two stints appeared on the 

 Antrim side of the estuary, feeding at the outskirts of a flock of 

 dunlins, and permitted a near approach. During the autumn of 



1845, the rarer sandpipers were very scarce in Belfast Bay ; and 

 I have no record of the stints' appearance : even gulls and ducks 

 of various species were less numerous than usual : curlews, red- 

 shanks, and oyster- catchers were in ordinary numbers. A stint was 

 heard and seen on the 23rd of September, 1846, and not very 

 far distant, four of these birds were observed at the outside of a 

 great flock of different species of G-rallatores congregated during 

 high water, on a floating mass of Zostera. On the 5th and 10th 

 of October, similar numbers were seen, and once or twice fired at 

 unsuccessfully ; — both parties being supposed to be those pre- 

 viously noticed. They all escaped being killed that season. 

 Between the first and last dates mentioned, they came under the 

 notice of various shooters. Stints were heard calling in the bay 

 on the 2nd of September, 1847. On the 23rd of August, 

 1848, two were observed associated with a flock of dunlins ; and 

 about the 7th of that month I was pretty certain of having seen 

 from a railway carriage a flock of twelve, unmixed with other 

 species. A young bird of the year was shot near Holywood on 

 the 1st of October, 1849. 



In so far, with the exception of the first bird noticed, the stint 

 is treated of only as seen in Belfast Bay during autumn, and all 

 except two were shot on the Down shore, within a mile and a half 

 of the town. Every year from 1831 to 1841 inclusive, notes are 

 given of its visiting this locality, with the exception of 1835, 

 when, being myself absent, no record of its occurrence was made. 

 I am not aware of the species having been ever killed here in 



