6856 Birds, 



the end of August and beginning of September; less frequently in 

 spring. 



Blackwinged Stilt. Has been ascertained by Mr. Bury to have 

 been once killed at the western end of the Island ; date not known. 



Bartailed Godwit. Unlike others of its tribe, is more often seen 

 at the period of the spring movement. In May, 1858 and 1859, a 

 flock numbering some thirty of these birds remained for about a fort- 

 night in Brading Harbour, and some of those then shot were in the 

 perfection of summer plumage. At this time the difference between 

 the sexes was very strongly marked, and they could be easily distin- 

 guished a good way off as the red and the white birds. In no females 

 that I have seen does the bay colour extend over the whole under 

 parts, and if the red plumage is ever completely assumed by them (as 

 seems likely from a remark in Montagu's ' Ornithological Dictionary'*), 

 it is probably only in the case of very old females ; those I have exam- 

 ined were but slightly tinged beneath with pale rust-colour, their neck 

 thickly set with narrow dark streaks, and the breast covered with spots 

 and bars of different shades of brown, the upper parts duller than in 

 the male. Evidently the sexes of the bartailed godwits are much more 

 different from each other in spring than those of the blacktailed 

 godwit. 



Curlew Sandpiper, I have twice shot at Bembridge, in September, 

 1848, and on the 25th of August, 1858. 



Knot. Is rather scarce in Brading Harbour, where it usually occurs 

 in September. I have only once met with the adult bird, and that was 

 in August, 1852. 



Water Rail. Has been ascertained by Mr. Rogers to breed in two 

 or three marshy localities near Yarmouth. 



Gray Phalarope. One was caught by the hand at Bembridge, 

 after a gale, in October, 1857. Another was shot off Sea View, in 

 November, 1858. Mr. Bury shot one in a ditch, near Pan Common, 

 quite early in September, 1857. Mr. Rogers obtained a gray phala- 

 rope on the 1st of November, 1859. 



Bernicle. Is very rare. Besides the specimen mentioned by 



* Under the head of Snipe, Redbreasted, it is slated, in the ' Supplement to the 

 Ornithological Dictionary,' that a bird (shot May 21) with its throat, fore-neck, breast, 

 belly and sides bright bay, proved to be a female. Other writers (as Temminck, in his 

 ' Supplement ') speak of the females being a little less bright than the males ; but the 

 difference amounts to far more than this, and is well expressed in Mr. Jenyn's 'Manual,' 

 p. 202. 



