8714 



Birds. 



been removed from the carcase, the testes of an adult male have been 

 taken for the two last eggs of an incubating female ? as these parts in 

 some old males have bee:> found nearly half an inch in diameter, and, 

 as usual, ovate in form and pure white. 



July 1. — One female at Holme, near Hunstanton. This bird, which 

 also came into the possession of Mr. Dodman, of Titchwell, was, as 

 Mr. Southwell informs me, found dead upon the beach at Holme. 

 " Its death was caused by a shot wound. The contents of crop and 

 gizzard were precisely the same as in others from the same locality; 

 and judging from its full and healthy appearance, its food must have 

 agreed well with it." Mr. Southwell gives the weight of the first pair 

 killed in this locality as 9f ounces each, male and female. I have no 

 doubt whatever that while staying myself at Hunstanton, in the be- 

 ginning of June, I saw more than once a small flight of these birds on 

 the beach at Holme. On one occasion I tried to get near about four 

 or five birds which at a distance I took for gray plovers. They rose 

 wild, however, and came over my head out of shot ; and their flight 

 and cry — the latter quite new to me — made me wonder at the time if 

 they could be anything I had ever met with before. 



July 8. — Male and female from Yarmouth. These birds, which are 

 in the possession of Mr. Owles, of Yarmouth, are supposed to have 

 been killed near Caister. They were sent up to Norwich on the 9th 

 for preservation, when I examined them in the flesh. They were 

 neither of them in such good condition as most of the earlier speci- 

 mens, the keel of the breast-bone being sharper to the touch ; nor 

 were they so fat internally, though perfectly healthy. The colours of 

 the plumage, in both male and female, looked dull, and exhibited no 

 signs of moulting. In the former the tail-feathers were half an inch 

 shorter than usual ; but both the tail and wings in the latter were an 

 average length. The gizzards presented the same class of small seeds 

 as in others, with white flinty particles, but these both smaller and 

 less numerous than in many I have dissected. The female, probably 

 a young bird, contained a large cluster of very small eggs, none larger 

 than a common rape-seed. The male was evidently an adult specimen. 



July 9. — Male and female. I am not able to state the exact 

 locality where this pair were shot, but I have reason to believe it was 

 on the Norfolk coast. Neither the crops nor gizzards presented any 

 variation from former specimens. 



With the exception only of the Elveden specimen, these birds 

 have been found in the above-mentioned counties, either close 

 to the sea (on the sand hills and shingle) or in the immediate 



