. TO RUSSIA AND BACK. 19 
It seems a small adult bird, with the cheek spots quite white, and 
also the throat, except the chin, which is black.” 
My next move was to Calais, where, on the 28th of 
October, I had a good opportunity of watching a Velvet 
Scoter, which was swimming between the piers. I suspect 
it had swum there purposely, as the next day there were 
two, seemingly both females. They were diving in the 
most unconcerned manner, but I know not whether they 
were fishing, or whether they were trying to escape the 
stones with which a gang of small street Arabs were pelting 
them. Ai little flock of Purple Sandpipers proved even 
more interesting than the Scoters. I was watching their 
quaint actions at the edge of the water, when a man came 
up and began to stone them also. Stoning seems a favourite 
diversion of the French. Walking home I saw a Woodcock 
flying wildly among the chimney tops. A Chaffinch was 
shown me which had killed itself against the lighthouse, 
a lofty structure which can be clearly seen from Dover. 
A wire netting has been found necessary to protect the 
lantern from the birds which dash against it. The keeper 
showed me into a room where there were about eighty 
species of birds set up, all of which he asserted had killed 
themselves against that light. I can hardly credit it, al- 
though he made the same assertion to my father, for there 
were several which appeared to me most unlikely to be 
obtained in such a way, eg., Montague’s Harrier, Rock 
Thrush, Little Bittern, Avocet, Purple Heron, Red-necked 
Grebe, (full breeding plumage,) Razorbill, and Gulls, The 
story he told my father was that, in 1855 a Whooper 
Swan flew against the lantern, and broke the glass and its 
own wing. This was stuffed, and after that specimens of 
all the species which killed themselves against the glass had 
been preserved. The tickets testify that the collection has 
been long finished. Of late years all the birds have gone 
