AN UNPUBLISHED MS. OF WILLIAM MARKWICK. 343 



" This bird is not uncommon on our sea-coast in summer ; but whether 

 it is to be found here in winter I cannot tell, as I do not recollect to have 

 ever seen it at that season. That it breeds here I have been an eye-witness, 

 for I remember that several years ago [that is before 1795] I found, in the 

 marshes near Eye, a young one of this species, which appeared to have been 

 just hatched, and I took it up in my hands whilst the old birds kept flying 

 round me. I have also seen it in the summer on the sea-coast at Bexhill." 



Noticing the Sea-pie, or Oystercatcher (Cat. p. 26), he 



" It is here called the Olive. I have frequently seen them in pairs on 

 our sea-coast in the summer, but do not recollect having ever seen them in 

 the winter." 



In his MS. notes (p. 90) he remarks : — 



" It breeds on our sea-coast, where T have frequently seen a pair of old 

 birds flying round me, and have also had their young ones in my 

 possession." 



With reference to the local name "Olive," I may remark that 

 twenty years ago, when I was in the habit of visiting Pagham 

 Harbour, and frequently staying at Sidlesham for a week or ten 

 days at a time for the excellent shore-shooting which was then 

 to be had there, I observed that the Oystercatcher was always 

 called Olive by the fishermen and wildfowl shooters. 



I suspect the name is of French origin, probably imported by 

 French fishermen visiting Eye and other harbours on the Sussex 

 coast ; for I have met with it in old French books on Falconry, 

 though it was there applied, not to the present species, but if 

 I remember rightly, either to the Thick-knee or to the Little 

 Bustard, both of which species were favourite quarry with French 

 falconers. The application of the same provincial name to more 

 than one species is an event well known to every experienced 

 wildfowler. 



Perhaps the most important correction of Markwick's printed 

 Catalogue supplied by his MS. is that which has reference to his 

 " Spotted Gallinule, Gallinula porzana" (Cat. p. 9). " This bird," 

 he says, " was once shot by the side of a mill-pond in this neigh- 

 bourhood." The MS. supplies the date (pp. 100, 105), namely, 

 the 29th March, 1791; but it also supplies the unlooked-for 

 evidence that the bird in question was not the Spotted Crake, 

 C. porzana, but the Little Crake, C. pusilla. Of this fact both 



