l88 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



tranquil, the birds were not visible to the eye, nor indeed 

 could they be seen even with the aid of a telescope. 

 Judging by the notes of tweet, tweet, continually re- 

 peated, Mr. Marriott considers this flight to have passed 

 on in a southerly direction, and he continued to hear 

 small parties of the same birds, passing in the same 

 direction, for some hours afterwards. As the first flock 

 occupied fully fifteen minutes in passing over his residence, 

 the number, he thinks, must have been immense. Mr. 

 Marriott is well acquainted with the note of the Yellow 

 Shanks {Totanus flavipes), and is quite confident the flock 

 of last evening was of some different species. 



This is the first time I have heard of so early an instance 

 of large bodies of birds passing to the southward. Of 

 course, the species will remain unknown to us until some 

 gale shall accidentally drive these early travellers to take 

 refuge on our shores. I am inclined to regard this in- 

 visible flight as a body of Spotted Sandpipers {Tringa 

 macularia of Wilson), and that on account of the note, 

 more than anything else, though I have never heard of 

 their being seen in such flocks. There is another bird 

 which occasionally visits us at this early season. I allude 

 to the small Tringa semipalmata, the note of which is 

 somewhat feeble. 



August 2nd. — Mr. A. Downes, who resides at Point 

 Shares, corroborates the above statement. He states that 

 about seven o'clock on the evening of the 31st ultimo, he 

 was walking alone on the hill near his house, and he very 

 distinctly heard the notes of a numerous flock of Sand- 

 pipers ; they appeared to come in direction from the 

 Admiral's House, i.e., from the north. For some time he 

 thought the flock was flying round and round the spot on 

 which he stood, and yet, notwithstanding their numbers, 



