300 
SCOLOPACID^. 
1840, a stint was seen on the 26th of August : in 1841, one 
had come on the 3rd of September and four on the 11th of that 
month. 
Owing perhaps to my neglect, I find no notes of the occurrence 
of the species in 1842 or 1843. On the 24th of September, 
1844, I received a stint which was killed that day in the bay, 
at the same shot with two pigmy curlews and twenty-four dunlins. 
On the 8th of December the same year, two stints appeared on the 
Antrim side of the estuary, feeding at the outskirts of a flock of 
dunlins, and permitted a near approach. During the autumn of 
1845, the rarer sandpipers were very scarce in Belfast Bay ; and 
I have no record of the stints'’ appearance : even gulls and ducks 
of various species were less numerous than usual : curlews, red- 
shanks, and oyster- catchers were in ordinary numbers. A stint was 
heard and seen on the 23rd of September, 1846, and not very 
far distant, four of these birds were observed at the outside of a 
great flock of different species of Grallaiores congregated during 
high water, on a floating mass of Zoster a. On the 5 th and 10th 
of October, similar numbers were seen, and once or twice fired at 
unsuccessfully both parties being supposed to be those pre- 
viously noticed. They aU escaped being killed that season. 
Between the first and last dates mentioned, they came under the 
notice of various shooters. Stints were heard calling in the bay 
on the 2nd of September, 1847. On the 23rd of August, 
1 848, two were observed associated with a flock of dunhns ; and 
about the 7th of that month I was pretty certain of having seen 
from a railway carriage a flock of twelve, unmixed with other 
species. A young bird of the year was shot near Holjrwood on 
the 1st of October, 1849. 
In so far, with the exception of the first bird noticed, the stint 
is treated of only as seen in Belfast Bay during autumn, and all 
except two were shot on the Down shore, within a mile and a lialf 
of the town. Every year from 1831 to 1841 inclusive, notes are 
given of its visiting this locality, with the exception of 1835, 
when, being myself absent, no record of its occurrence was made. 
I am not aware of the species having been ever killed here in 
