394 Ornithological Notes, By George Bolam. 



Bar-tailed G-odwit : Limosa lapponica, (Linn.) 

 During the second week in August, 1883, two bar-tailed godwits in their 

 red or summer plumage were killed on Fenham flats, Holy Island. One 

 of them which is now in my possession, is in full summer dress, not having 

 changed a single feather : the other had begun to moult and had assumed 

 here and there indications of its winter plumage. A specimen killed in the 

 same locality in the autumn of 1882 still retained about the breast and 

 wings a few red feathers, but I had not previously met with the full sum- 

 mer plumage in the district. 



Black-tailed Godwit : Limosa cegocephala, (Linn.) 



A specimen of this rare autumn visitant was obtained by my brother 

 upon the Goswick sands on 7th September, 1883. It is a young male in 

 immature plumage and was when shot in company with some bar -tailed 

 godwits. 



Whimbrel : Numenius phoeopus, (Linn.) 

 Does not leave us in spring until well on in May, and I have seen them 

 in June. In the autumn the first arrivals begin to appear towards the end 

 of July, and during August it is perhaps more abundant on our coast than 

 at any other time of the year. 



Landrail : Crex pratensis, (Bech.) 

 One later than usual in departing was shot near the mouth of the Tweed 

 on 27th of October, 1882. It was in good condition and proved to be 

 gorged with earth worms, amongst them being the remains of a single 

 black beetle. 



In May of last year I was surprised to see a corncrake sitting upon the 

 top of a close cut hedge, quite four feet above the ground, craking away 

 most vociferously. 



Bewick's Swan : Cygnus minor, Keys, and Bl. 

 Several small flocks visited Fenham flats during the winter of 1882. In 

 the end of November of that year I had an opportunity of examining in 

 the flesh three specimens which had been shot there on the 25th of the 

 month, at one discharge from a punt gun belonging to Mr Anderson, 

 Berwick. They were all fine adult birds, and two of them — male and 

 female — were afterwards purchased for the Berwick Museum. A few days 

 afterwards, another bird was shot from the same boat, and two others were 

 secured by different people. They were all adults in fine conditi®n. 



In the autumn of 1879 one of a pair was shot on the Till near Milfield 

 by Mr George Grey, in whose possession it now is. 



Grey-lag Goose : Anser ferus, (Gmel.) 

 Much rarer than either the pink footed or bean goose although not un- 

 frequently confounded with them, all geese of a grey colour being termed 

 " grey legs " by the fishermen and local shooters. In the ' Proceedings ' 

 for 1880, at page 401, the grey-lag is made to appear as a regular visitant 

 to Berwick ; but this is a printer's error — what I wrote was "grey geese" 

 (meaiiing grey geese generally as opposed to hlaclc or brent geese) and this 

 has been confounded with the grey lag goose (Anser ferus) and hence the 

 mistake. The record of migration as there given, should therefore be 

 taken as applying indiscriminately to all three species of grey geese, though 



