NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. ?73 



near Gibb's Hill on Sunday last, and a couple this day were 

 brought in by Captain Austin, of the 56th Regiment; 

 Though I have seen none of these Plover myself, it is 

 impossible to doubt the testimony of so many individuals 

 all tending to the same point. Is not this remarkably 

 early for these birds to beon their great southern flight ? 



August 26th. — Mr. A. Hinson, who resides at the foot 

 of Gibb's Hill, tells me that during the stormy weather of 

 the 19th and 20th instant he was out with his gun, and 

 never had better shooting at the Plover. He particularly 

 mentioned two species as abundant, and laying among 

 weeds and sage bushes, as if for the purpose of shelter. 

 — the one, the ordinary Golden Plover of this part of the 

 world, and the other, a larger Plover, with "black about 

 the head." This I take to be Charadrius helveticus of 

 Audubon, or Black-bellied , Plover. Ring Plover {Chara- 

 drius setrti-palmatus) he also describes as numerous in that 

 locality, A large. Curlew (probably Numenius kudsonicus) 

 and' a real Snipe (Scolopax wilsonii) are also reported as 

 having been observed. I may here remark that other 

 persons have assured me of the presence of the latter 

 within the past week ; but that I consider their evidence 

 as doubtful, seeing- that the Snipe has only once appeared' 

 so early as the 13th of September ; for several years pasti 

 Weather very warm. Thermometer, eighty-three to- 

 eighty-four. 



' August 2jth.—~Dr. Innes, 56th Regiment, informs me 

 that on Monday, the 22nd, hearing that Plover had come 

 in, he -sailed with a friend to Cooper's Island, where he 

 found numbers of the Sandpiper tribe, 'viz., the Greater 

 ahd : Lesser Yellow-shanks, the Semi-palmated small one, 



