104 OBNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. By G. BOLAM 



Ruff. Machetes pugnax (Linn.) 



In a game shop in Berwick, on 14th September 1896, I 

 saw two immature birds, male and female, which had been 

 received from Fenham that morning. The late Mr H. T. 

 Morton showed me a young Ruff, which had been shot 

 on the moors near Ray, in October 1882. I saw another 

 immature bird shot by Lord Francis Osborne, near Ord 

 House, on 3rd October 1898; when found, it was sitting 

 alone upon a stubble field, and appeared loath to fly away. 



While bicycling along a road in the parish of Whitsome, 

 on 25th September 1899, I disturbed a young Ruff from 

 the margin of a pond by the roadside. It was much tamer 

 than some Pewits, which were in its company, and, though 

 five or six times disturbed, it always returned to the pond 

 after flying round once or twice. On consulting Blackadder's 

 map of Berwickshire, after returning home, I was rather sur- 

 prised to find that the farm on which the pond is situated 

 was called Reevelaw, a rather curious co-incidence. 



In October 1899, I presented to the Berwick Museum an 

 immature specimen, which had been killed at Holy Island 

 on the 17th of that month. Adults are more uncommon 

 with us than young birds ; but two Ruffs, and a Reeve, 

 which still retained a good deal of their summer plumage, 

 were shot by the late Mr Robert F. Boyd, on a marshy field 

 at Broomhouse, in the parish of Ancroft, a few years ago. 



Green Sandpiper. Totanus ochropus (Linn.) 



Although the majority of these birds only pay us a 

 passing visit in August and September, individuals may 

 occasioaally be met with in the district, in almost every 

 month of the year. They seem well able to withstand our 

 hardest winters, and frost has little effect upon them. I 

 presented to the Berwick Museum an adult, in full winter 

 plumage, which was shot by my brother, on the banks of 

 the Breamish, at Beanley, on 1st January 1900, and which, 

 notwitlistanding the hard weather prevailing at the time, was 

 excessively fat. For many years past I have occasionally 

 noticed one or two Green Sandpipers wintering in that 



