4298 Birds. 



sandpiper. It is migratory, departing early in October for the South. 

 It resides chiefly among the sea marshes, and feeds among the mud 

 at low water ; springs with a zigzag irregular flight, and a feeble twit. 

 It is not altogether confined to the neighbourhood of the sea, for I 

 have found several of them on the shores of the Schuylkill, in the 

 month of August. In October, immediately before they go away, 

 they are usually very fat. Their nests or particular breeding places 

 I have not been able to discover. 



" This minute species is found in Europe, and also at Nootka 

 Sound on the western coast of America. Length five inches and a 

 half; extent eleven inches ; bill and legs brownish black ; upper part 

 of the breast gray-brown, mixed with white ; back and upper parts 

 black; the whole plumage above, broadly edged with bright bay and 

 yellow ochre ; primaries black ; greater coverts the same, tipped with 

 white ; eye small, dark hazel ; tail rounded, the four exterior feathers 

 on each side dull white, the rest dark brown ; tertials as long as the 

 primaries ; head above dark brown, with paler edges ; over the eye a 

 streak of whitish ; belly and vent white ; the bill is thick at the base, 

 and very slender towards the point ; the hind toe small. In some 

 specimens the legs were of a dirty yellowish colour. Sides of the 

 rump white ; just below the greater coverts, the primaries are crossed 

 with white. 



"Very little difference could be perceived between the plumage of 

 the males and females. The bay on the edges of the back and sca- 

 pulars was rather brighter in the male, and the brown deeper." 



Note on Nestor productus, the extinct Parrot of Philip Island.* — " I have 

 seen the man who exterminated the Nestor productus from Philip Island, he 

 having shot the last of that species left on the island ; he informs me that they 

 rarely made use of their wings, except when closely pressed: their mode of progression 

 was hy the upper mandible ; and whenever he used to go to the island to shoot, he 

 would invariably find them on the ground, except one, which used to be sentry on one 

 of the lower branches of the Araucaria excelsa, and the instant any person landed, 

 they would run to those trees and haul themselves up by the bill, and, as a matter of 

 course, they would there remain till they were shot, or the intruder had left the island. 

 He likewise informed me that there was a large species of hawk that used to commit 

 great havoc amongst them, but what species it was he could not tell me." — /. H. 

 Gurney ; Easton, Norfolk, April 7th, 1854. 



Occurrence of the Little Olivaceous Gallinule (Ortygometra pusilla) at Balbriggan. 

 — I received this morning a fine specimen of the little olivaceous gallinule, in the 



* Communicated by Mr. F. Strange, of Sydney, to Mr. J. H. Gurney, under date 

 of December 7th, 1 853. 



