40 A. C. CHAPMAN : BIRDS OF NORTHUMBERLAND COAST. 



seek their food by the side of some secluded pond. I have shot them 

 in such places, and have also occasionally flushed them off stubble- 

 fields when Partridge shooting. 



Leaving the sandflats and approaching the mud, with its crop of 

 sea-grass already ripe for the daily raids made on it during the winter 

 months by Brent Geese, Widgeon, and Mallard (Anas boscas), one still 

 finds Dunlin as numerous as ever, but I have never met Sanderlings 

 on such ground. Their place is now taken by the Knot, and mixed 

 flocks of these birds and Dunlin may be found feeding together. It is 

 perhaps strange that I have never killed, or seen killed, either an aid 

 Knot or Sanderling during the month of August. Occasionally 

 Knots and Turnstones may be seen associating together; on 

 August 25th, 1880, I killed both species with the same shot. They 

 were young birds and seemed to be resting, probably after a pro- 

 longed flight from their breeding stations. Some young Knots are 

 much more rufous on the breast and flanks than others • their legs 

 are a yellowish-green or olive colour. 



On August 19th this year, there were no Knots on ground usually 

 frequented by them, but on the 20th they were numerous, evidently 

 arrived that day. My brother shot several, as well as a brace of Teal 

 (Querquedula crecca) with the dusky spotted breasts, and an old 

 Whimbrel in ragged feather. 



On August 23rd, 1883, when rowing in a dingey up a bight in 

 Fenham Slake, I chanced to see a bird stretch its wing and gently 

 close it again. It was sitting amongst grey whelk-covered shingle, 

 and though close at hand I could not make it out, so I fired at the 

 place. Nothing flew away ; on coming up two young Knots and a 

 Reeve lay dead. This is the only time I have come across the Reeve 

 in Northumberland, though it used to breed at Prestwick Car. Its 

 legs were a yellowish clay colour, the irides dark hazel, nearly black. I 

 had seen a bird the night before which I felt certain was a Ruff, so 

 that probably there were more of them in the neighbourhood. The 

 feathers of the back and tertials are finely edged with yellow in this 

 species, when young. 



On August 24th, 1872, my brother shot a young Greenshank, and 

 on the 25th, 1874, I killed another in exactly the same place. These 

 birds seem to prefer feeding along the banks of some of the fresh- 

 water streams which run from the country into the saltslakes, and I 

 remember two being killed on a freshwater lough on Holy Island, on 

 August 25th, 1879. These dates show great regularity in the arrival 

 of this species each year. All those here mentioned were young of 

 the year. I have never come across the Dusky Redshank, but 

 Mr. Adamson, in his book 4 Some more Scraps about Birds,' says 



Naturalist, 



