Ornitholofjical Notes, by George Bolam. 100 



wMcli were procured on the shore near Boulmer, and a few years 

 ago shot one in that locality. Usually they are seen in company 

 with small parties of Redshanks and other Sandpipers, but the 

 Q-oswick bird was found on a grass field feeding with a large 

 flock of Peewits and Golden Plovers. 



Green Sandpiper {Totanus ochropus). — Not unfrequently met 

 with on the coast in autumn, appearing as early as the middle of 

 July. It used regularly to visit the banks of the Till, near 

 Weetwood, being generally found singly or in pairs in spring, 

 and in small parties of from three to six in autumn. 



Grey Phalarope {Phalarojms hiatus). — A person named Eeed, 

 living at Goswick, shot an example of this rare casual visitor 

 during the autumn of 1877. When killed it was swimming on 

 a small pool in front of his cottage, and was, he says, very tame. 



PoMARiNE Skua [Lestris Pomarinus). — A flock of Skuas, princi- 

 pally composed of this species, visited us in October, 1879, and a 

 great many were killed. One man, in whose possession I had 

 an opportunity of examining eleven specimens, told me that "he 

 had shot over a score to his own gun," on the 14th of that month, 

 and that several other persons had killed almost as many, The 

 greater number of those procured seem to have been old birds 

 (or at all events not in the j^rs;^ plumage, in which stage they are 

 most frequently found on our coast), and were nearly all of the 

 pale variety, indeed I can only hear of two, in the uniform dark 

 brown or black plumage, having been seen or obtained. In a 

 young bird in the first plumage, the central tail feathers are 

 scarcely half-an-inch longer than the others, while in some of 

 the adults these two feathers extend as much as ?>^ inches be- 

 yond the rest of the tail. Most of the birds obtained here how- 

 ever, as I observe seems to have been the case elsewhere, had 

 these long tail feathers broken. Three examples, shot by Dr 

 Colville Brown the day before, were exhibited at the Berwick 

 meeting of the Club, on the 15th of October last, but were then 

 supposed to be Eichardson's Skuas. 



Buefon's Skua [Lestris longicaudus). — A single example of this 

 Skua was killed at Eyemouth during November last. It is in the 

 usual adult plumage, and has the central feathers 7 inches longer 

 than the rest of the tail. I have not heard of any Great or Richard- 

 son's Skuas being obtained during the past winter, in the district, 

 and the above is the only capture of the Arctic Skua which has 



V 



