84) On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



is often blown by some adverse wind, against its will, into our 

 territory, and finds itself as much " at sea " on terra firma as our 

 native inhabitants would be on the water. In exemplification of 

 this I may mention that in my own small collection I have specimens 

 of the Cormorant, Brent Goose, Puffin, Sclavonian Grebe, and 

 Red-legged Gull, all killed o£ late years within the boundaries of 

 the parish ; while close at hand have been secured the Razor Bill, 

 Richardson's Skua, Black Tern, Gannet, Black and Red-throated 

 Divers, and the Fork-tailed Petrel; and, in addition, the greater 

 number of the Anatidm have also been procured within a few miles 

 of us. This can be accounted for when we remember that our fair 

 city of Salisbury is not much more than half-an-hour's flight from 

 the mouth of the river Avon, from whence, doubtless, many of our 

 visitors hail ; and from whence more specimens of the Order are 

 procurable than perhaps from any other spot on our south coast ; 

 besides which it is no long flight, either, to the Bristol Channel, 

 from and to which many of our birds may be sometimes tempted, 

 or perchance forced, to make a short cut across our county. 



The whole Order is a very interesting one, speaking to us of that 

 life on the ocean wave which they are so admirably adapted to lead, 

 with their thick coats of down, and buoyant pinions, suggestive of 

 that free and wandering existence, which the very look of the 

 " many twinkling ocean " suggests. 



The various species belonging to the Order are numerous, in- 

 cluding, as it does, the Geese, Swans, Ducks, Grebes, Divers, Gulls, 

 Terns, Petrels, and many others $ birds not often met with, except 

 in their own special haunts, requiring to be sought for if they would 

 be found, and opening out to us mid-landers a perfectly new field 

 for interest and research : for many a man who is quite familiar 

 with all the common wild birds in-shore, would find himself nowhere 

 when called upon to discriminate between the various species of the 

 Gulls and Terns, in their differing states of plumage, which vary 

 according to age so entirely, and in such minute yet reliable par- 

 ticulars from each other, that a novice in maritime ornithology 

 would quickly have to allow himself to be fairly puzzled. 



I must in this paper, as in my others, draw largely for my list of 



