BIRDS 383 



market between the Eden and Carlisle, September 23, 1835]. 

 In the very year that Heysham wrote this letter to Yarrell, 

 Cooper sent ten Little Stints in the flesh to Mr. C. M. Adamson, 

 with the remark that he had seen [not obtained] more Little 

 Stints that autumn than in all his previous experience. That 

 same year he shot a Little Stint on the 1st of June, a fact 

 which no doubt induced Heysham to speak of this Tringa 

 occurring in the spring-time, at which it is otherwise unknown 

 with us. September is the month which generally sees the 

 arrival of a few Little Stints, especially after a prevalence of 

 strong easterly winds. A few appeared in the seasons of 1887, 

 1888, 1889, 1890, and 1891, though no considerable immigra- 

 tion of this Sandpiper has occurred since Cooper's day, i.e. 

 during the last half- century. Cooper himself twice shot Little 

 Stints on our salt marshes in the beginning of winter, and 

 other late stragglers have occurred quite recently. Mr. Nicol 

 saw a single Little Stint flying in a flock of Dunlins up the 

 Waver on November 1st, 1889, and Mr. Mason shot another on 

 Rockliffe marsh the following day. This last was resting at 

 the edge of a little ' dub ' or pool of water on the surface of the 

 marsh. He broke its legs, and was obliged to kill it, though 

 reluctant, as he assured us, to kill such a delicate little Wader. 

 On examination it proved to be still wearing the plumage of 

 youth. Mr. Nicol saw a single Little Stint near Skinburness 

 on the 15 th of January 1891, a remarkable date at which to 

 meet with this bird. Of its habits during its brief sojourn on 

 our estuaries on autumnal migration it is difficult to write with 

 the same prolixity as of commoner birds, because of its comparative 

 rarity. But I have never met with it in Lakeland at any distance 

 from our estuaries. By choice it seems to associate chiefly with its 

 own species, and with Curlew Sandpipers. If separated from 

 its fellows, it either remains alone or consorts with the ubiquitous 

 Dunlin. Like that species, the Little Stint is fond of feeding 

 upon open sands, but it never frequents to our knowledge an 

 exposed beach. When high tides have covered our marshes, 

 and filled the half-dried creeks, both species may be found at a 

 distance from the wide sands that they haunt at other times. 

 I have not dissected many Little Stints, but those that I have 



