BIRDS CLAIMING TO BE ACCOUNTED BRITISH. 261 
than once been confounded. This is believed to be the 
individual alluded to by Shearer and Osborne in the Trans. 
of the Phys. Soc. of Edinburgh. Again I should say that 
the example referred to by the late Professor Macgillivray, 
as “observed near Montrose,” (B. B., IV., p. 358) was the 
same which I learn from Mr. Gray is mentioned by Messrs. 
Molison and Brewster in their list of the Birds of Craig in 
Forfarshire. I have no evidence about it, but Mr. Gray 
thinks that a mistake may have been made. Mr. Molison 
was a collector and birdstuffer, and I have ascertained that 
he possessed “ Bewick,” the picture in which may have led 
him into error. 
Ireland may be dismissed with a very few words. 
Dr. J. D. Marshall, at p. 395 of the 2nd vol. of the Mag. of 
Nat. Hist., says: “One specimen was shot near Belfast in 
July, 1828, and another in September.” I have no doubt 
they were among the instances investigated by Thompson, 
who, though a discursive writer, was a most conscientious 
naturalist (N. H. of Ireland, IT., p. 216). 
And now to conclude, after having mentioned so many 
other people’s Spotted Sandpipers, let me mention my own. 
In the course of my enquiries I learnt that Mr. B. Bates, 
the birdstuffer at Eastbourne, was in possession of a pair 
which he received in the flesh from a gasfitter named Lee 
some day in the beginning of October, 1866; and as 
Mr. Borrer and others were kind enough to make enquiries 
for me with a satisfactory result, and as I found that 
Mr. Lee remembered the afternoon when he shot them at 
what is called the Crumble pond, about a quarter of a mile 
from Eastbourne, a place where a good many rare birds 
have been killed, I bought one of them, and have since 
seen the other. I carefully examined both and made 
further enquiries without shaking the testimony of any one 
concerned in the matter, and I can only say that I now 
