228 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



neighbourhood. Saw Mr. Hodgson Smith to-day, who 

 tells me there are flocks of Plover on the Port Royal Hills, 

 which are pursued by so many coloured and inexperienced^ 

 gunners that it is a service of danger to shoot there. 



Mr. Smith shot a small Curlew on the shore this morning, 

 which, from his description, I presume to be the Esquimaux 

 species. A flock of birds, supposed to be Plover, passed 

 over the parish of Devonshire last evening, in a south 

 direction ; they are described as forming one long line of 

 more than a hundred birds. 



September 2jth. — A " school " of twenty real Snipe 

 reported to have been in White's Marsh while I was at 

 office. This I took the liberty to doubt, but as birds of 

 some kind had evidently been seen by my neighbours, I 

 turned out with my gun to ascertain, if possible, what they 

 were. In a neighbouring marsh I fell in with a flock of 

 twenty or thirty Pectoral Sandpipers, probably the same 

 adverted to, and of these I killed half a dozen. Beat the 

 marshes from Minton's to Ingham's, saw one Solitary 

 Sandpiper, one Tringa pusilla, and two Snipe, the true 

 Scolopax wilsonii, one of which I bagged. These are the 

 first Snipe I have seen or heard of this season. They were 

 found singly and far apart, and the one shot was extremely 

 fat. Found the marshes flooded by the late rains to such 

 an extent as to prevent Snipe from harbouring in them. 

 The water where exposed to the sun was more than tepid, 

 forming an agreeable warm bath to wade in. " Snipe 

 shooting in warm water" was certainly a novelty, and I 

 question if invalids might not indulge in it with impunity. 

 Thermometer, 8o°. 



September ^otk. — A Snipe was shot this morning by a 

 young man named " Walker," who resides near the sluice 

 gates, Spanish Point. 



