BIRDS 
after nest of its pyriform eggs, or dandled the 
pretty little downy young while the old birds 
circled round me with deafening lamenta- 
tions. It is most abundant in autumn, but 
is never wholly absent from our midst. 
215. Spotted Redshank. Totanus fuscus(Linn.). 
A rare visitant, hitherto only met with in 
the vicinity of the Solway Firth. It frequents 
the foreshore in the neighbourhood of Skin- 
burness in the autumn months, but is not 
noticed every year. In the decade of years 
between 1888 and 1897 eight individuals 
were reported to me; of these, four were shot 
and entered my hands in the flesh. One of 
these had been feeding on small fishes. All 
were immature birds. 
216. Greenshank. Totanus canescens (Gmelin). 
A few birds, chiefly young of the year, 
visit us every autumn, and haunt our 
marshes for a few weeks, uttering their 
plaintive whistle as they circle round the 
foreshores. Odd birds have wintered and 
even passed the summer with us, but of 
course the breeding haunts of this wader lie 
considerably further north. I have met with 
the greenshank inland in a very few instances, 
chiefly in the Eden valley. 
217. Red-breasted ‘Snipe.’ 
griseus (Gmelin). 
In the year 1835, an immature example of 
this American wader was shot upon Rockliffe 
Marsh by James Cooper. The bird was 
picking up small beetles upon an elevated 
part of the marsh when killed on September 
Macrorhamphus 
25th. It entered the collection of Mr. T.C. 
Heysham. 
218. Bar-tailed Godwit. Limosa lapponica 
(Linn.). 
Locally, Curlew-Knave. 
Many hundreds of immature specimens of 
this godwit arrive upon the shores of the Sol- 
way Firth every autumn, chiefly in September, 
when they are often very tame and unsus- 
picious. They are delightful birds to study 
through a telescope as they scatter over the 
sands or feed at the edge of the tideway. In 
1898 a flock of from two to three thousand 
godwits came flying into Allonby Bay from 
the westward on the morning of October 2nd, 
and alighted upon the wide expanse of sand 
laid bare by the tide; as the rising waters 
rippled inwards the birds rose into the air, 
wheeled round and round en masse, and 
alighted again a little nearer to the beach 
with a perfect whirl of wings; in a few 
seconds I saw hundreds and hundreds closely 
massed together, and the telescope revealed 
every detail of their plumage, while their 
shrill cries added to the interest of the busy 
scene ; as nearer crept the tide, so nearer and 
nearer did the birds edge in towards the 
shore; suddenly they sprang into the air 
with a bewildering fanning of myriads of 
wings, while their white rumps served as 
centres to the greyish upper parts and ren- 
dered their appearance the more remarkable. 
This time they were up in real earnest, and 
directed their course in an easterly direction, 
flying in a huge broad bar up the Solway 
Firth. But they returned in smaller num- 
bers on many another day and probed the 
damp sand in front of my windows, often 
inserting their long mandibles in the sand 
almost up to their very base. 
When feeding on sand-worms, godwits are 
often followed by brown-headed gulls which 
watch their movements very closely, and 
endeavour to make them drop their prey. 
They continue to delight us with their 
graceful actions until wild and boisterous 
weather drives the majority of young birds 
to winter in more genial regions, but they 
are apparently replaced by adults in full winter 
dress which generally arrive in December. 
219. Black-tailed Godwit. 
(Gmelin). 
This godwit is one of our rarer visitants, only 
procured hitherto on the marsh lands of the 
Solway Firth, and that in very small numbers. 
About ten immature specimens were killed 
by our local wildfowlers between 1884 and 
1889 ; in 1893 two others were killed out 
of a flock of three by W. Nicol, who fell in 
with them on October 13th. He shot two 
more birds in August, 1898, one of which 
went to R. H. Thompson; the other was 
preserved for the Carlisle Museum, which 
possesses all the specimens that have entered 
my hands in the flesh. On July 29th, 1890, 
Mr. A. Wilson came across two of these birds 
on Skinburness Marsh, and shot one of them, 
an old bird in red summer livery. 
The only specimen procured locally in 
midwinter was shot near Bowness-on-Solway, 
January Ist, 1889. 
Limosa  belgica 
220. Curlew. Numenius arquata (Linn.). 
Locally, Curley, Whaup. 
The curlew is a common bird in most 
parts of the county. Many individuals are 
to be seen scattered along our entire coast 
in calm open weather ; but should a heavy 
gale assail the shipping, the curlew seeks 
shelter on its favourite mosses, or drops into 
some sheltered nook among the winding 
creeks of the marsh lands. 
air 
