SHORT NOTES ON BRITISH BIRDS. 
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RED-FOOTED HOBBY. 
As it is a point of interest to know where rare birds are 
to be found, I think that this is the time to mention that I 
have recently ascertained a young male Red-footed Hobby 
in my father's collection, to be the same specimen recorded 
in Paget’s “N. H. of Yarmouth.” It was shot at Breydon, 
not as Messrs. Paget say in 1832, but on the 1st of May, 
1830, In all. probability it was the first killed in Britain. 
Mr. D. B. Preston of Catton, to whose notes I am indebted 
for clearing up the confusion, says it was killed behind the 
“Vauxhall Gardens,” and he saw it shot. He adds that 
Mr. Lombe of Melton, on hearing of the circumstance, sent 
an artist to draw it. On referring to some MS. notes left 
by that gentleman I find that “drawings were sent to the 
Linnean Society”—drawings that is to say (I suppose) of 
my father’s bird and his own killed at Horning in the same 
year. 
AVOCET. 
In April, 1867, I had a pair of Avocets from Leadenhall 
Market. I was told it was a great thing to get a pair; but 
in April, 1871, I saw no less than seven there. I think they. 
came from Dort or Dordrecht in Holland. It was a sight 
not to be forgotten. 
