whether or not it alights at a distance from the nest upon its return, as the sky lark does. I remember, however, accidentally disturbing a ringed plover from its nest one snowy morning early in May. The bird, as usual, ran directly away, the foot-prints thus made being the only ones upon the otherwise undisturbed surface of the snow in the immediate vicinity of the nest, although there were numerous others in all directions a few yards distant. After remaining in a neighbouring cottage for about ten minutes, during which time no other shower had occurred, I returned to the nest, and there found the bird upon the eggs, the return track being visible to the very brink."-P. 164.

I think Dr. Saxby scarcely states the case of the turnstone fairly as against Macgillivray, when he says it is a matter of surprise that so careful an observer should have regarded the alleged stoneturning habit as a fable, for the learned Professor only says he had nearly given up the alleged habit as a fable, when he read Audubon's account, which he quotes at length, and which is so circumstantial that it sets the matter completely at rest, a point of which Macgillivray no longer expresses a doubt. Dr. Saxby has also been an eye-witness of this act; he says, "I have watched these birds for hours at a time, and besides witnessing the act repeatedly, have afterwards visited the ground, where the displacement of stones and shells, and even the completely reversed position of some, has been quite sufficient to prove the existence of the habit in question." The breeding habits of the turnstone are admirably described in the paragraph which follows, and leaves nothing to be desired.

"For years after this I was sadly tantalised by seeing turnstones about the shores of Unst during the breeding season, not small flocks which merely waited until summer was well advanced, but pairs which lingered about particular localities. It was seldom, however, that the pair were seen together; the male might be feeding upon the beach and the female several hundreds of yards away upon the rough stony ground. The most likely place of all seemed to be between Skioting and Clugan, and to this spot I directed my attention more particularly. It was a peculiarly wild spot, quite out of the way of the people's track to and from their cottages and boats, and so far as I could imagine well suited to the breeding habits of the birds. The ground is rough and quite uncultivated, backed by stony hills, and gradually sloping towards masses of weather-worn rocks, which form a barrier, preventing the encroachments of the sea. Where the vegetation gradually ends the ground is very irregular and stony, tufts and patches of long rank grass apparently offering most suitable nesting-places. On the evening of the

16th of June, observing a female turnstone behaving very suspiciously, I searched most minutely among the grassy depressions and hollows for more than two hours, and was wandering almost in despair upon the gravelly and stony edge which had been washed bare by the winter's spray, when to my delight there lay three eggs in a hollow among the stones, slightly sheltered from the north by a flattened fragment which partly overhung them. The hollow, which had evidently been artificially formed, was scantily lined with dry grass, and measured a little less than five inches across. I was rather surprised that the bird displayed no anxiety; possibly she was watching me from some concealed position, and would have been bolder had all four eggs been laid and incubation commenced; but at any rate I saw nothing of her for about an hour previously to my discovery of the treasure. Although I had not the smallest doubt that the eggs were turnstone's,— indeed they could have been nothing else,-I thought it best to take one egg, intending to return cautiously next evening, and perhaps see the bird leave the nest. However, early in the morning a man came with the very two eggs to claim the reward I had offered, and although he seemed much aggrieved by the charge, I am quite sure the rascal had been watching me. Two of the eggs were a good deal like the figure in Mr. Hewitson's work, but the ground colour of the third was of a brighter green; all were blotched with umber-brown, reddish brown and purplish gray, the markings of the latter colour being smallest. The average length was one inch and six lines, the breadth one inch two lines."-P. 171.

To myself, who have never witnessed the feeding habits of the oystercatcher, it has always been a puzzle how the bird could detach the limpets from the rock; I never supposed that the oystercatcher fed on oysters, and Dr. Saxby has done nothing to remove the impression that the name is simply the result of a fable. In my occasional visits to the sea-shore I have never seen oysters exposed to the gaze of an oystercatcher, or to my own gaze either; but limpets are certainly so exposed, and as certainly fall a prey to this ingenious bird. Whoever has collected either limpets or sea anemones for an aquarium must have discovered the fallacy of "hammers and mallets and chisels tipped with cold steel." If you would remove these creatures from the rocks without injury, you must take them by surprise, and therefore at a disadvantage; a sudden tap or push is sufficient, but it must be rapid and decided, otherwise the intended victim tightens himself to the rock and bids. you defiance. The oystercatcher knows all this, and is far more expert than you can possibly be in carrying the limpet's citadel by storm; "nevertheless," and now I am quoting Dr. Saxby,—

"Those birds which I sometimes see in confinement always place the limpet with the shell downwards, and then, running the bill round the inner margin with a peculiar tremulous motion, detach the animal as rapidly as I could with a knife, and far more neatly. I have never seen them use the foot to assist the operation."-P. 175.

We learn here that oystercatchers, like the dotterel, may be readily domesticated and converted into kitchen pets; in which case it is well to know they need not be confined to a limpet, much less to an oyster, bill of fare, but will be contented with a "diet of worms," or even occasionally a sop of bread and milk or the yelk of a hard-boiled egg.

"A few years ago, returning in a boat from an egg-seeking excursion, I was surprised to hear a sound exactly resembling the cry of an oystercatcher, but much weaker, proceeding from the handkerchief in which some eggs were tied, and, on examination, found a very handsome egg just chipped by a young bird. I kept it warm in my hands, and on reaching home placed it in wool before the fire. It liberated itself in a few hours, and immediately began running about the kitchen floor, soon afterwards picking up bread soaked in milk, and the yelk of hard-boiled egg. A neighbour, to whom I gave it, soon 'lost fancy' for it, and the poor thing was starved to death."-P. 176.

I am well pleased to meet with a short paragraph on the drumming of the snipe; it is one of the subjects that has been a kind of "bubbleyjock" with ornithologists: if you express a doubt as to how it is occasioned, the invariable reply is, "Oh! don't you know that? I thought everybody knew that!" and then follows a solution which is little more than a conjecture, and which conjectures agree in nothing but differing from each other. The following note by the editor of the 'Birds of Shetland' is interesting, and accords with my own views; and I may add that although this drumming has generally been treated as peculiar to the snipe, I believe that several other birds occasionally exhibit an analogous phenomenon. I may remark that in this, as in other cases, the editor has exhibited his intimate acquaintance with bird-life, and a perfect fitness for the task which, through the lamented death of a beloved brother, has thus unexpectedly devolved on him.

"Many years of isolation from the old work must plead my apology with the well-informed reader, if the point be-as is very possible-now regarded as settled beyond all need for remark; but perhaps it will not be unduly intrusive if I subjoin an extract from my own notes on this subject, somewhat more in detail, written in Shetland in 1854:-'I have carefully

watched the snipe upon the wing, to observe their flight, while making the peculiar drumming' noise. The drumming is always preceded by a sharp call several times quickly repeated, on the cessation of which the bird instantly makes a diagonal swoop in its flight, the wings vibrating with rapidity during the continuance of the sound. At my brother's suggestion, I have imitated the sound with tolerable accuracy by sweeping round at arm's length a large quill-feather, as of a swan or eagle; if held tightly in the hand it will produce much the same noise by its tremulous motion as the edge cuts the air. I am hence led to conjecture that the sound is caused by the bird setting its wings rigidly at the conclusion of its note, and letting itself shoot ahead with its previous impetus. We many a time spent an hour, on the side of Vallafjeld, motionless in the heather, studying the ways of the snipe, with the aid of a telescope, and then tried our great eagle's feathers, borrowed for the purpose, with the sound fresh in our ears. The result was convincing.""-P. 204.

In some respects the fancy names, indicative of habits, which have been assigned to families or groups of birds are not entirely satisfactory, because the habit or peculiarity that suggested the name frequently appertain with equal force to species not included; this is the case with the word Natatores, or swimmers; thus, amongst the Grallatores, or waders, are many species which, as I know from personal observation, exhibit the faculty of swimming equally with those which exclusively enjoy the name indicative of that accomplishment. Who that has ever watched the little phalaropes, buoyant as corks, or the coots, or the waterhens, but will be quite willing to admit this? The purple sandpipers would seem another example, and, if I mistake not, its natatorial powers have already been recorded in the 'Zoologist:' be that as it may, the following passage is ample evidence of their existence :

"The purple sandpiper is an excellent swimmer. In calm weather I have seen three or four, belonging to a larger party, swimming actively about the base of a rock upon which their companions were feeding. I never saw one dive except when wounded and closely pursued. Sometimes, when I have disturbed one on a calm day, it has taken wing, and has deliberately alighted upon the water several yards from the shore."P. 213.

Another word or two on this species may be quoted with propriety :

"As they generally take the seaward side of the rocks, they are not easy to be seen from the shore while thus at rest. So little fear of man do they

show that occasionally it is difficult to alarm them; provokingly so now and then when one wishes to obtain a specimen, and the bird, refusing to rise, stands quietly with its head upon one side, as though it were highly amused at such an amount of clucking' and gesticulation. In fact, the little monkeys sometimes turn the tables upon you altogether, for you can't shoot a bird when it is pleased to see you.". .”—P. 213.

In this place I must introduce a long extract on the breeding habits of the rednecked phalarope, or dearganallt. Dr. Saxby has enjoyed perhaps better opportunities than any other of our ornithologists for observing the domestic arrangements of this dear little bird, and no one will doubt that of these opportunities he has availed himself to the full. We also find, at p. 329 of Mr. Gray's Birds of the West of Scotland,' some notes on the same species of so interesting a character that I need make no apology for introducing them here, although the site of the observations is somewhat different. It seems that there are four or five breeding stations of the rednecked phalarope at the Long Island on the Outer Hebrides, the most numerously frequented of which is Benbecula, where from ten to twenty pairs are annually found haunting the little lakes that abound in that island. There are also several stations in the islands of North and South Uist, frequented by at least other twenty pairs, so that the entire dearganallt population on these three islands may be reckoned at something less than fifty pairs. The time of their arrival varies a little according to the season; generally, however, the stations are occupied by the last week in May, and the nests formed in the first week in June. About the first week in July the families gather together preparatory to their departure, which is also to some extent regulated by the state of the weather; but as soon as August sets in young and old have entirely disappeared. In connection with this information as regards the rednecked phalarope in the Outer Hebrides, the following respecting the same species in Shetland cannot fail to interest the readers of the 'Zoologist.'

The scene is laid in a nameless locality in some marshes and low meadows about a quarter of a mile from the sea: the name of the locality is withheld purposely, that it may remain unknown "to the skin-and-egg-shell-fancier," as Dr. Saxby prettily describes those who would be most likely to profit by the information; but he thinks, and I most cordially concur in the sentiment, that the good ornithologist will scarcely find much fault with his reticence.