INTRODUCTION. XIX 



season, was Possdyke Wash, Lincolnshire (Pennant). The 

 Wood Sandpiper, usually a spring and autumn migrant, is 

 known to have remained throughout the summer and nested. 

 In addition to the nest found by Mr. Hancock (p. 47) another 

 was taken in a birch-plantation by a small loch- side in Elgin- 

 shire, 23rd May, 1853, and the eggs identified by Mr. Bond 

 (c/. Thurnall, ' Naturalist,' 1853, p. 254) . 



Devon may be added to the counties in which the nest of 

 the Dunlin (p. 49) has been found (c/. Moore, Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. 1837, p. 322). 



The Crane (p. 54) is very rare in Shetland. A long ac- 

 count and description of two procured there in July 1865 will 

 be found in the ' Zoologist,' 1865, pp. 9767-9772. A young 

 Bittern (p. 56) taken at Ranworth, Norfolk, is figured in the 

 'Zoologist,' 1846, p. 1321. On the subject of British Wild 

 Geese, the reader may be referred to a paper by Mr. Arthur 

 Strickland, read before the Nat. Hist. Section of the British 

 Association at Leeds, 24th Sept. 1858, and published in the 

 ' Naturalist,' 1858, p. 271, wherein the author says that the 

 Grey Lag Goose never was a migratory species in this country, 

 but permanently resided and bred in the " carrs " of York- 

 shire, and probably in the fens of Lincolnshire ; and although 

 long since banished from these places, it still breeds in the 

 Western Isles of Scotland. As to this see also Gray, 'Birds 

 of W'est of Scotland,' p. 339. 



While on the subject of wild fowl, a passing allusion may 

 be made to a couple of essays by two very practical observers 

 on the change of plumage in Ducks and other birds, — the 

 first by the late Charles Waterton (Essays in Nat. Hist., 1st 

 series, p. 196), the second by Mr. Blyth (Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 1837, pp. 259-300). A full and very interesting account of 

 decoy-ponds, as worked in Norfolk, will be found in Lubbock's 

 'Fauna of Norfolk,' pp. 94-110; and a capital description 



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