

AN UNPUBLISHED MS. OP WILLIAM MARKWICK. 337 



generally appearing about April 13th, whereas the Cuckoo was 

 never earlier than the 17th of that month. Two or three 

 instances are noted (p. 123) of young Woodcocks being shot in 

 the summer time, showing that this species nested in the county 

 in his day ; though the Snipe did not, notwithstanding that there 

 was " much oozy, springy ground in the neighbourhood." The 

 Grey Crow appeared about the 17th October, and was not seen 

 after the 14th April. The Siskin, he says, with us is called the 

 Barley-bird, from its appearing about the time of barley (April), 

 and continuing with us no longer than the barley- sowing lasts 

 (April 30th). 



Writing of the Terns, he remarks (p. 127) : — " The earliest 

 that I have observed the Great Sea Swallow, Sterna hirundo, was 

 the 15th April, the Lesser, or S. minuta, the 24th April; and the 

 Black Sea Swallow, S.fissipes, is so rare that in sixteen years 

 I observed it but once, and that was on the 28th April." 



We then come to the description and figure of the so-called 

 Tringaglareola, which was " shot by the side of a little fresh-water 

 rivulet in the parish of Battle, and sent him by a friend." It is 

 clear from Markwick's description, particularly of the tail- 

 feathers, that the bird which he got hold of was not T. glareola, 

 but Totanus ochropus. Of this he himself appears to have been 

 subsequently more or less convinced, as we may infer from his 

 "Additional Remarks on the Wood Sandpiper, Tringa glareola" 

 (Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. ii. 1794, p. 325). 



And here the unpublished MS. on Birds supplies a note on the 

 subject, to be mentioned later, and affords internal evidence of its 

 having been written after the appearance of the paper just noticed, 

 and also after the publication of the Catalogue of Sussex Birds. 



It appears from the General Minute Book of the Society that 

 the MS. in question was presented by the author on the 1st April, 

 1800, the entry under that date being as follows : — " Donations— 

 A MS. volume of Remarks on Birds, and also a MS. description 

 and figures of Grasses and Rushes by Mr. Markwick, by the 

 Treasurer from Mr. Markwick.' 1 * 



* The MS. volume on Grasses and Bushes, with figures drawn from 

 nature by Markwick, is also now before me, and shows the author to have 

 been a better draughtsman of plants than he was of animals. Besides these 

 MSS. the Linnean Society's Library contains two others in the hand- 

 writing of the same author. The first of these, in one vol. 4to, — of which 



ZOOLOGIST.— SEPT. 1890. 2 0. 



