Birds. 6729 



of raising as you walk among them. Take care, or else you will tread on some of 

 them. Perhaps one or two of the little fellows will run on before you ; the majority 

 (whose plumage at this time of the year wonderfully matches the colour of the sand) 

 will squat close, a few of them yawning, and stretching their wings every now and 

 then vertically above their backs (another common habit peculiar to the Tringae). A 

 few of them, not quite so lazy, you may see within a few inches of your feet, prying 

 about for sand-worms and small Crustacea. See ! that lucky fellow has just seized a 

 fine worm ; but, epicure as he is, he runs down to the retiring waters first of all, and 

 gives the worm a riuse or two before he swallows it. Another fellow wades out boldly 

 into the water, and when out of his depth swims about a little, and when he comes 

 out sits quietly on the sand close to you, and regularly preens his feathers. A gentle- 

 man told me that once, as he was watching a flock of these little birds, one of them 

 came up to him, and examined the sand which was clinging to his boots for insects ! 

 These little fellows are extremely affectionate, and will squat close to a wounded com- 

 panion, until you fancy you are going to pick up an uninjured bird, when, just as your 

 hand is on the point of seizing them, up they fly, and dart off with their zic-zac flight, 

 and shrill cry, " Sesteely, sesteely ! '' While watching these little birds and other of the 

 Tringa?, it has often struck me how unnaturally these birds are generally to be found 

 " mounted " in collections. There you will see them with their legs and necks stretched 

 to the uttermost, and looking either as if they had been racked or drilled by some 

 martinet. On the sand these birds seem to have scarcely any necks at all, and their 

 bodies are low down close to the ground, looking very round and puffed out; the beak 

 generally with its tip almost resting on their porrected breasts. Altogether they look 

 very much like jack snipes appear when they are standing still on the ground and me- 

 ditating. I am afraid the Editor will think this is a great deal to have to say about 

 such a common, unassuming little bird as Tringa variabilis; but I fancied a few 

 remarks from one who is fond of watching these pretty little Tringae and their habits 

 might be acceptable to those who have not lately visited a sand-flat.— Murray A. 

 Mathews; August 14. 



[The Editor does not think the observations on the dunlin at all de trop, and he 

 fully sympathises with his contributor's observations on bird-stuffing. — E. Newman.'] 



The Hawfinch at Selborne. — On Saturday last, the 27th of August, I picked up 

 on my lawn the wings and a few other feathers of a hawfinch, which had doubtless 

 been killed by a cat. This is the fifth instance I have known of the occurrence of this 

 species in our neighbourhood ; and I thought the fact worth recording, particularly 

 with respect to the season of the year. — Thomas Bell ; September 1, 1859. 



A Sea Monster. — Captain John Dunn, of the schooner 'Rover,' on a trip from 

 Quebec to Belle Isle, reports as follows : — " On Saturday, the 20th of August, in lat. 

 59° 14' N. long., 59° 10' W., at 4 o'clock a.m., weather fine, saw something like a vessel 

 bottom up, S.E., about three miles distant; bore down to ascertain what it was, and 

 on approaching close to it could discern something like the bow of a clinker-built ves- 

 sel bottom up, showing the rows of planks apparently the same. About what seemed 

 to be the head noticed a great deal of red. Bowsprit apparently under or in a wash 

 with the water. On nearing on the larboard side saw something snow-white on the 

 XVTI. 3 H 



