72 BIRDS. 



departing further south later in the autumn. The few re- 

 maining to pass the winter are joined in May by large flocks 

 from the south, and leave along with them before the end 

 of the month. For the last two years I have noted that 

 about a score of non-breeding birds remain at Spurn 

 throughout the summer, 



286. Haematopus ostralegus L. Oystercatcher. 



Winter visitant to the coast, local ; common in sonje locali- 

 ties, scarce in others. Occasionally frequents inland reser- 

 voirs. Sometimes observed on the coast as early as July, 

 remaining till spring. 



Fam. SCOLOPACIDiE. 



287. Recurvi rostra avocetta Z. Avocet. 



Accidental visitant from continental Europe, of extremely 

 rare occurrence. 



Skipwith Common, two killed about 1824; one of them in 

 the York Museum (Allis). 



Spurn Point : Mr. Arthur Strickland informed Mr. Allis, in 

 1844, that he had known several to occur near the Spurn 

 Lighthouse in spring some years before, but that he had 

 heard of no recent occurrence. 



Tees mouth, one shot in the winter of 1827-8 near the Tees 

 (Hogg, ZooL, 1845, p. 1 172), a locality from which Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney, jun. (ZooL, 1876, p. 4765), records it as 

 having occurred twice or three times. 



The last instance in which the Avocet is known to have 

 nested in Britain, was at the mouth of the Trent, about the 

 year 1840. Mr. Hugh Reid, of Doncaster, informed Mr. 

 A. G. More, in a letter dated June ist, 1861, that eggs 

 were taken on a sand island at the mouth of the river 

 Trent about twenty years before. There was at the time 

 a spring tide, which nearly covered the island, and the 

 eggs were floating on the water. The man who took them 

 shot one of the parent birds at the same time, and brought 

 the eggs to Mr. Reid. The island had patches of grass 

 growing on it, and there was always mud and warp about 

 it — a likely place for the bird to feed on. The county 

 boundary being at this place drawn in the centre of the 



