260 Ornithological Notes, by Valentine Knight, Esq. 



as nearly as I can give it, is as follows : — wings, tail, and all the 

 upper parts a deep ash brown, the back feathers edged with paler 

 colour; head and neck paler, but slightly clouded with dark 

 brown ,; the hairy feathers at base of bill very dark brown ; the 

 remainder of plumage (or the rump and under parts) a few 

 degrees paler of the same colour ; legs, toes, and claws pale 

 brown ; beak, pale brownish horn ; iris, lead colour. The nearest 

 approach to the colour of this remarkable bird that I have in my 

 collection, is a brown specimen of the Common Buzzard, with a 

 dash of ash colour. I have also a cream-coloured specimen of 

 the Rook which was shot some years ago at Kyloe Wood, about 

 three miles from Lowlynn. I need scarcely add that both birds 

 are in their first or nest plumage. Yarrell mentions a variety 

 "of a light ash colour, most beautifully mottled all over with 

 black, and the quill and tail feathers elegantly barred ;" this 

 bird, on its moulting, changed to a jet black Rook; Henry 

 Stevenson, in his " Birds of Norfolk," seemingly alludes to this 

 same bird, as also does Morris. Mr Stevenson, however, in the 

 same page (277) of his work mentions, as in the Norwich 

 Museum, a Eook which he describes as a " singularly brown 

 specimen." I think it most probable that most of such varieties, 

 if they escaped the gun, would change to the black plumage at 

 the next moult. 



Ringed Plover (Charadrius Hiaticula). — On frequent occasions, 

 this year and last, during the breeding season, and I may say 

 throughout the summer, I have seen several pairs of the Ringed 

 Plover by the banks of the Teviot, about half way between 

 Kelso and Jedburgh, and from the noisy and anxious manner of 

 the birds and the nature of the ground near the water side, I am 

 satisfied they nest there regularly, notwithstanding the distance 

 from the coast, which must be 25 or 26 miles as the crow flies. 



Sabine's Snipe (Scolopax Sabini), or Common Snipe (Scolopax 

 Gallinago) ? — I have in my collection a Snipe with very remarkably 

 dark-red plumage. It was shot on the 1st January, 1875, by a 

 man named James Speedy, at the mouth of a burn entering the 

 sea. near the Marshall Meadows Estate, Berwickshire. Seeing 

 the bird in a shop window in Berwick, and believing it at once to 

 be a variety of Scolopax Sabini, I traced it to the owner and pur- 

 chased it. It was very unfortunate that the bird was "set up" 

 (I won't call it preserved) before I saw it, as it had been very 



