Ornithological Notes. By George Bolam. 361 



Kobert Patterson on the banks of the Tweed near Berwick. In 1889 Mr 

 Purvis of Alnwick obtained one which had been killed in the neighbour- 

 hood of Fenham ; and one shot in November at Sleekburn, in Northumber- 

 land, was noticed in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle. On 3rd September 

 of the same year, a youn^ female, now in my collection, was shot by my 

 brother on the Tweed, about three miles above Berwick. In the previous 

 spring, one found dead below the telegraph wires at Morpeth, was 

 purchased from a platelayer by the Rev. Charles B. Carr; and I saw 

 another that had met with a similar fate on the railway near Widdrington 

 in 1882. 



The Spotted Crake seems to be particularly liable to be telegraphed, for 

 it is a comparatively rare bird, and the numbers found below the fatal 

 wires are out of all proportion to the scarcity of the species. 



Dotterel. Endromias morinellus, Linnaeus. 



A very fine and brightly coloured bird, and probably therefore a female, 

 was picked up upon the golf course at Goswick, by Mr Robt. Grossman, on 

 12th May 1890, and is preserved at Cheswick House. In the same year 

 one was found running about with a broken wing on the links near Monks' 

 House, by a coastguardsman while going his rounds. It had no doubt 

 been in contact with the telegraph wire, and was taken to North Sunder- 

 land, where it lived at the coast guard station for a considerable time. 

 Another, shot at the Black Lough on Alnwick Moor in 1889, was preserved 

 by a person in Morpeth. 



Geey Phalarope. Phalaropus fulicarius, Linnaeus. 



During the stormy weather in October 1891, the country was visited by 

 great numbers of these graceful birds, probably more being seen and 

 killed upon our coasts than at any time since the year 1866, when there 

 was a similar invasion, but at that time they arrived a few weeks 

 earlier. 



In the present instance the only Northumbrian specimen which came 

 under my notice, was one shot by Mr Robert Rutherford on the mill pond 

 at Yearl on 19th October, and which I saw and examined next morning, in 

 the hands of Mr Wm. Hall, bird stuffer at Wooler. It was a bird of the 

 year, but had almost completed the change to winter plumage, and had 

 been noticed frequenting the pond on which it was shot, for about a week 

 previously : the same or another individual having been seen upon the 

 pond at Middleton Hall a few days before. 



In June 1889, a specimen now in my collection, and which I purchased 

 from Hall, was killed by a boy, named Lugton, with a catapult, upon the 

 mill pond at Way-to-Wooler farm. It is in winter dress, but has acquired 

 a good many of the red feathers of its summer plumage. 



