236 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



the Cambrian and Silurian Fossils in the Kendal Museum (by Rev. 

 Geo. Crewdson) ; a List of the Birds of the Lake District (by Mr. 

 John Watson) — a too-brief instalment again, and some Meteorological 

 Returns, complete the tale of papers in the two first parts. 



In conclusion, we can sincerely aver that this serial serves a well- 

 considered end, and should reap the success it plainly deserves. It 

 only remains to say — for our part without jealousy — Floreai. 



NOTES— ORNITHOLOGY. 

 Black-throated Diver near Bingley. — I saw a Black-throated Diver 

 {Colyrnhiis arcticus) a week or two ago, which had been shot at Manywells the last 

 winter. It had not attained its full plumage, being probably in its second year's 

 moult, and is the only specimen recorded for this district. — E. P. P. Butterfield, 

 Wilsden near Bingley, April loth, 1888. 



Alarm Note of the Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola). — On or about 

 June 15th, last year, I was walking in a wild place some six or seven miles 

 from Dumfries, and about two from New Abbey, where it was said a hamlet had 

 once found a site, and in which what might have been the ruins of dwellings 

 and their containing enclosures were mingled up with grassy glades and 

 straggling groups of natural wood-growth and underwood, when my attention was 

 arrested by frequent bird-notes reminding one of the cry of the Curlew when 

 suddenly disturbed, and yet, with all their resemblance, distinctly different. 

 Curlews were there certainly ; for the wood-grown space I was in was separated 

 on one side by one of the customary dry granite walls of the district from the moor 

 lying at the foot of a considerable range of granite hills. I was looking for a 

 plant or two I was told grew near, or for a butterfly or the like, for some very 

 juvenile naturalists of my acquaintance, and I thought I saw a Woodcock go down 

 under a holly-bush about ten yards from where I was standing. Going forward 

 quickly to see if I could flush it, I disturbed rather a good moth, which flew out 

 into the open and settled among the rough herbage of what would have been a 

 damp or boggy place but for the prevalent droughty weather. Pursuing it, I was 

 immediately greeted with a repetition of the notes which had caught my attention 

 shortly before. They came from a pair of Woodcock which were flying about 

 just above the tops of the trees, precisely as do the Lapwing, the Redshank, or 

 any other of the birds whose habit it is to ' mob ' the intruder upon their nesting 

 precincts. During some fifteen or twenty minutes this was continued, only 

 pausing when I went back under cover of the woodland growth. The moment I 

 reappeared in the open, these vociferous attentions were renewed, both birds 

 coming within twenty yards of me times without number. I was already aware 

 that the Woodcock bred in considerable numbers in some woods barely a mile 

 distant, but I had never before seen anything like this on the part of a nesting 

 Woodcock. Certainly on one occasion, about three years ago, I had heard a 

 Woodcock giving utterance to a series of short, rather peculiar, notes (two or three 

 of them emitted in quick succession) while on the wing. There was some 

 pigeon-shooting going on in a low meadow about a third of a mile from where I 

 was standing, and on the hill-side rising from this meadow to the level of our 

 Dan by 'Low Moors,' was a five-and-forty acre bit of young wood which has 

 always been a safe place for a cock or two if there were any in the country. The 

 Woodcock I speak of continued to fly round and round in wide circles for a con- 

 siderable space of time, and was ' left ' so flying. It came within shot of me 

 half-a-dozen or half-a-score times, and during the whole space of time I continued 

 to observe it, the notes I have mentioned continued to be uttered at intervals of a 

 minute or two. I have not seen any notice of either of these habits of the Wood- 

 cock in any account or monograph of the bird I have met with, and they may be 

 worth recording. The low note emitted as the birds fly in the gloaming to their 

 feeding-places seems to be quite distinct from either of those I have here noticed. 



— J. C. Atkinson, Danby-in-Cleveland. 



Naturalist, 



