2 20 MISCELLANEA 



the country, a few Swifts are still to be seen regularly in the 

 early days of September. This has again been the case in 

 the autumns of 1907 and 1908. In 1907, indeed, quite a 

 large number of Swifts, between a dozen and twenty, congre- 

 gated over the Leazes Park, Newcastle, every evening up to 

 September 2nd ; and I believe some of them stayed consider- 

 ably later. In any case in 1908 I saw three Swifts fly over 

 the Leazes Park on the morning of September 15th. 



Dotterels on Migration. — It is well known to local ornitho- 

 logists that parties of Dotterels ( Endroinias niorinellus) used 

 regularly to appear on the Newcastle Town Moor on their 

 northward migration in May, sometimes also on the return 

 migration in autumn. In recent years, however, they have 

 rarely been noticed, and it is therefore worth while to record 

 that Dotterels were again seen on the Town Moor in May of 

 1908. A party of four, two males and two females, settled on 

 the far part of the Moor on the afternoon of May 15th. I was 

 told that evening by Mr. Geo. A. Atkinson that they were 

 there, and I saw them myself just before dusk. I found them 

 in the same place next morning, and they stayed in fact more 

 than three days ; at least I came upon one pair there late in 

 the evening of the i8th. During their whole stay the Dotterels 

 were extraordinarily tame ; it was quite easy at any time to 

 walk up to within ten yards of them.* 



Sandgrotise in igo8. — Through Mr. J. D. Walker also we 

 hear that a Sandgrouse ( Syrrhaptes paradoxus) was shot on 



* Since this paragraph was in type some further interesting information 

 about the Dotterels has come to hand. Mr. J. D. Walker is able to state 

 that they still regularly visit the Newcastle Town Moor in early autumn ; 

 he has seen them there himself almost every year. He also reports that a 

 flock of twenty Dotterels appeared at Newbiggin in the earlier part of May 

 this year (1908) ; sixteen of them are known to have been shot for the 

 trout-fly makers, and Mr. Walker suggests that the four that visited the 

 Town Moor may have been the survivors of this unfortunate band. Mr. 

 F. Longstaff tells me that on the autumn migration Dotterels annually visit 

 Newbiggin, where toll is always taken of them ; and he once saw several 

 large flocks of them on the golf course at Cleadon. 



