446 Notice of the Arrival of some Summer Birds of Passage 



dart with great violence against the wires of the cage, flutter 

 about in the strongest manner, and was often so much ex- 

 hausted with these efforts, that the whole frame was convulsed ; 

 it panted, gasped, and was to all appearance in the very agonies 

 of death. All these symptoms are we believe common to most 

 migratory birds when first kept in confinement, and are a strong 

 proof that this species migrates, notwithstanding the assertion 

 to the contrary by Montagu and some other authors. The 

 plumage underwent a material change: it gradually lost the 

 dusty speckled feathers peculiar to the majority of young birds, 

 and had nearly acquired the livery of the female. It proved 

 however to be a male. 



Ring Ouzel. — We could not ascertain that the Ring Ouzel 

 was seen in its usual breeding haunts before the 22nd of April. 

 Yet we think it probable it arrived sooner, having secured two 

 young birds in full feather on the 15th of June. The last 

 was noticed on the 28th of September. 



123. Greater Spotted Woodpecker (Picus major.) — One of 

 these birds was shot near Croglin on the 8th of September; it is 

 a species very rarely seen in the neighbourhood. The last was 

 caught alive by a cat a few years ago in a garden in the sub- 

 urbs ; and having received little or no injury, it amused the 

 curious for some days, by almost incessantly tapping with its 

 bill the wooden bars of the cage in which it was confined. 



131. Spotted Gallimde or Rail [Gallinula Porzana). — Two 

 specimens of this prettily marked species have latelyfallen under 

 our observation. The first was killed on Hayton Moss on 

 the 9th of September, the second near Jedburgh in Scotland 

 a week afterwards. Montagu, in his Ornithological Dictio- 

 nary, makes the following observation upon this species : — "In 

 England it has not been observed further north than Cum- 

 berland." Whether this is the first Spotted Gallinule that 

 has been detected in Scotland we know not; yet it is probable 

 it may have occurred there since the publication of the 

 Ornithological Dictionary in the year 1802. 



133. Grey Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus). — The first Grey 

 Phalarope we believe ever recognized in this part of the county, 

 was killed on the coast not far from Cardurnock on the 18th 

 of September. This bird had a small clay-coloured patch on 

 each side of the neck near the middle. The sex could not be 

 ascertained by dissection, owing to the injury it had received. 

 There was nothing in the stomach except the fragments of a 

 few shrimps (Crangon x>ulgaris\ and it only weighed one ounce 

 one dram. 



This is undoubtedly a rare species, especially in the nor- 

 thern counties ; but it would appear from the annexed quo- 

 tation 



