NOTES AND QUERIES. 395 
was kept alive at Warkworth for a few days ‘by Mr.-D, Deuchar, for 
whom it has since been preserved. Mr. Jefferson has furnished me 
with an interesting account of the birds; in it he remarks that they 
frequented the small burns near the coast rather than the coast itself, 
and that when disturbed they always flew inland. From their first 
arrival they remained in the immediate neighbourhood of Alnmouth. 
Of the two Ibises received at the Hancock Museum, one is decidedly 
larger than the other. There is a difference of practically an inch in 
length of bill (52, in. and 4,3, in.), and other measurements differ in 
the same proportion. Both birds are in immature plumage—back 
dark iridescent.green, head and neck dusky brown, with spots and 
streaks of white; but in the larger bird the feathering, especially on 
the breast, is distinctly closer and more mature-looking, and this, 
combined with the difference in size, suggests that this bird is in its 
second year, whereas the other is in its first—H. Lronarp Giuu. 
_ Glossy Ibis at North Devon.—On Sept. 5th, 1906, I noticed, among 
some Gulls on the mud by the river at Barnstaple, Devon, a specimen 
of the Glossy Ibis (Ibis falcinellus), I am afraid I have been very 
remiss in not recording it before. Possibly some other observer has 
done so; if not, however, this may be of some slight use.—N. P. 
Fenwick, Jun. (The Gables, New Road, Esher). 
[Mr. Bruce Cummings recorded in these pages (1907, p. 21) that 
about the beginning of September, 1906, a Glossy Ibis was shot on 
the River Taw near Fremington, and was placed in the hands of the 
Barnstaple taxidermist for preservation. This is probably the bird 
seen by Mr. Fenwick.—Ep.] 
-Incursion of Godwits at Yarmouth.— Not for at least eighteen 
years have so many Bar-tailed Godwits (Limosa lapponica) put in an 
appearance on our Breydon mud-flats as were observed during the 
earlier days of September. It was usually on the spring migration 
that this species was commonly looked for in the earlier half of the 
last century, when the “12th of May—Godwit day” was hailed by 
local gunners with considerable excitement. I have recorded (‘ Nature 
in Hastern Norfolk,’ p. 237) where Gibbs, an old punt-gunner, still 
living, saw in the early seventies, during an easterly gale, ‘hundreds 
of thousands”’ constantly coming from the south-west (inland direc- 
tion). I have known many a May pass by without any number, and 
sometimes without an individual being seen. The past May was 
remarkable by their scarcity. The prevalent winds were, I believe, 
southerly or thereabouts, and of no abnormal velocity, and what 
