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SCOLOPACIDiE. 
two species and godwits ; in a single instance with redshanks and 
knots. 
The numbers vary much in different years. In 1838 they were 
remarkably scarce ; an intelligent shooter, always on the look-out, 
observing them but twice : one on the 3rd of September, and 
none again until the 23rd of October, when four appeared. In 
1845, one only was killed ; a few others were heard during the 
last week of August that year. In 1846, but two were seen 
until the 10th of October, on which day one was killed ; the other 
had been procured on the 26th of September. In the autumn 
of 1837 they were more common than usual in the bay, and 
numbers were shot a flock of about twenty birds was once 
seen, and out of a party of eight, six were killed at one discharge. 
My informant (who has supplied me with many specimens) dis- 
tinguishes this species from the dunlin when on the ground, by 
its superior size ; — in flight, from the lower part of the back 
being white, or by its call, which is very different from that of its 
congener, and is said more to resemble that of the turnstone than 
of other shore birds. In 1839 they were more plentiful than 
ever before known, and arrived before the ordinary time, a couple 
having been shot on the 2nd of September. On the 7th of that 
month a flock of from thirty to forty appeared, and they increased 
until the 21st, when not less than a hundred were seen in com- 
pany with a large body of dunlins, though generally when a 
number are together, they do not associate with other species : 
occasionally about fifty or sixty would rise together from one 
extremity of the flock, and after flying about for a short time 
would alight with the others. The noise produced by their calls, 
especially when on wing, was very great, and described to me as 
a kind of chatter,^^ most unlike the note of the dunlin. This 
large body subsequently proved to have been collected together 
for migration, as they took their departure on that day from the 
* On the English shores, also, they would seem to have been more common than 
usual at this time, as Mr. Yarrell remarks that “ more than twenty were exposed 
for sale on the same day in Leadenhall Market, London, in September 1837.” — 
‘ Brit. Birds,’ vol. ii. p. 627. 
