Birds. 1907 



or the crab is induced to throw them off, according to the known practice of these 

 creatures when injured. Each of these is then seized and swallowed in succession ; 

 and the body, by this time become a mere lump, is gulped down last of all. A launce 

 or shanny, if caught across the mouth or held by the tail, is flung aloft, and caught 

 in a convenient posture as it falls. If the prey be a flounder or plaice, it is thrown on 

 the surface, and pecked so violently as to break or dislocate the firm arrangement of 

 transverse bones, and thus deprive the muscles of their strong contractile power, by 

 which so rigid an obstruction was thrown in the way of swallowing. It is then rolled 

 up into a cylinder, and easily disposed of. A close observer of nature informed me, 

 that his attention was directed to a cormorant, which appeared to be much distended 

 about the neck and throat ; but, while watching its proceedings, the bird discovered 

 his presence, and endeavoured to escape, by which means its attention became dis- 

 tracted, and an eel started from its jaws, and employed much active effort to effect its 

 retreat. Unwilling to lose so valuable a morsel, the bird pursued it, and was again 

 successful ; but it was not now in haste to ingulph its prey. Repeatedly and violently 

 did it peck the fish through the whole of its length, and then again it seized it across 

 its bill ; but, still finding it capable of too much activity, it continued to peck it, un- 

 til the whole of its powers of contortion were subdued, and there was no further risk 

 of its again effecting an escape from its dungeon." — p. 195. 



A few Remarks on the Provincial Names of Birds. By the Rev. James Smith. 



I perceive, from certain notices in your excellent and most useful publication, that 

 you are anxious to obtain the provincial names by which natural objects are known 

 throughout the various localities in the kingdom. A list of such names would, I con- 

 ceive, be of no inconsiderable importance to every naturalist. They will be found to 

 differ greatly in different districts ; and it no doubt frequently happens that a particu- 

 lar name is believed to indicate an animal hitherto unknown or unseen, which, by 

 another name used in another locality, would be immediately recognized as one of fa- 

 miliar, and perhaps daily, occurrence. In the parish, for example, where I reside, al- 

 though it is fully ten miles from the nearest part of the sea coast, the dunlin (Tringa 

 variabilis) comes up regularly to breed on an extensive tract of heath interspersed with 

 marshes, and is here, as well as in the adjoining parts of the country, universally known 

 by the name of the dorbie. At the sea coast, where it is said to breed, although I 

 have never seen a specimen of its egg, the purple sandpiper (Tringa maritima) obtains 

 the name of the blin, that is, the blind dorbie, from a seeming unconsciousness, which 

 it manifests, of approaching danger. The tract of heath already mentioned shows, 

 every now and then, a piece of ground destitute of vegetation, and covered all over 

 with small stones. I am informed by the older inhabitants, that formerly these spots 

 were frequented in the breeding-season by the ring dotterel (Charadrius Hiaticula). 

 This elegant little bird is, I am sorry to say, no longer to be seen here. It is common, 

 however, on all the low lying and sandy parts of the coast, and is widely known by the 

 name of sannie laverock, that is, sand lark. On a particular portion of the same 



