6728 



Birds. 



Occurrrence of the Sand Grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus) in Wales. — A fine male 

 of this rare bird was shot in a turnip field at Portreuddyn Farm, near Tremadoc, on 

 the 9th of July last. It was observed, together with two other birds of the same kind, 

 by a farm labourer in the employ of T. Chaffers, Esq., of 14, Great Howard Street, 

 Liverpool, while "scuffling'' the turnips. Fortunately he was provided with a gun 

 for shooting rooks ; but, it being single-barrelled, he was unable to kill more than 

 one bird. This was kindly forwarded to this Museum, while still in the flesh, as a 

 donation, by Mr. Chaffers ; it was shot in the head, and only one or two feathers were 

 displaced from the crown ; it has been very successfully stuffed by Mr. Butterworth, 

 of this town, and is now open to the inspection of visitors. The two birds that 

 escaped flew off in an easterly direction towards Merionethshire ; and Mr. Chaffers 

 has been unable to obtain any information of their having been observed either 

 before or since. This species, which is rare in Museums, inhabits the plains of Tar- 

 tary ; and its occurrence in Britain is an event the importance of which is greatly 

 enhanced by the fact of its claim to be an European species having previously been 

 doubtful. It is included in the European list by Prince Bonaparte in his ' Geogra- 

 phical and Comparative List of the Birds of Europe and North America,' but is 

 omitted by Gould, Temminck, Schlegel and Degland. I have been informed by 

 Mr. Sclater that he has examined a specimen of the above species shot lately in Nor- 

 folk, and that he has heard also of another. These and the birds observed in Wales 

 doubtless originally belonged to the same flock. What special influence has this year 

 caused them to wander so far from their native land ? — Thomas John Moore ; Free 

 Public and Derby Museum, Liverpool. 



Notes on the Wood Sandpiper and Dunlin. — On the 11th instant my brother and 

 I were on our sands on the look-out for whimbrel, when we noticed among a small 

 flock of the summer snipe (T. hypoleucos) what seemed a decided stranger. This bird 

 soon separated himself from his companions, and alighted on the mud close to us, 

 uttering at the time a strange and dissonant cry, which my brother not inaptly com- 

 pared to the noise made by a person whistling into the tube of a key. This note 

 sealed the bird's death-warrant, as at my request my brother walked forward and 

 shot the bird, which unsuspiciously allowed him to get near to it, jerking its head 

 backwards and forwards all the time in the peculiar manner of the Tringae, — a mo- 

 tion which suggests to one that the birds have either very creaky necks, or else some- 

 thing wrong with their internal arrangements. When my brother brought me the 

 dead bird, from the very ochreous colour of the legs I at first thought I had become 

 the lucky possessor of a yellowshank ; but a closer examination proved the bird to be 

 a wood sandpiper (Totanus glareola) in adult plumage. When I skinned the bird (a 

 male) I found it to be in very poor condition ; and I fancy its thinness indicates that 

 it had just accomplished a migration. Its stomach was full of a. sandy grit, amongst 

 which I found several small white larvae and fragments of minute Crustacea. I have 

 since heard that another specimen of the wood sandpiper has been obtained in our 

 neighbourhood, very likely the companion of the bird I have. If any naturalist 

 wishes to amuse himself by contemplating the habits of that pretty little Tringa the 

 common dunlin, now is the time for him to visit the sand-flats. The birds are now 

 coming to them in great numbers from their breeding-stations on the moors ; and the 

 young birds, for the first month or so, are so very tame and confiding that they may 

 be watched very readily at a close distance. On a hot morning large flocks of these 

 lively birds may be noticed squatting lazily on the sands, and none of them will think 



