250
THE BIRDS OF ESSEX.
on our sea-shore [at Harwich], where it is sometimes found at the edge of the
water. * * * Specimens have been obtained on our coast in the months of Janu-
ary, April, June, at the end of August and in October." Round Harwich, it is
now common, especially during the period of spring migration (Kerry).
[Buff-breasted Sandpiper : Tringa rufescens.
A rare straggler to Britain from North America. There seems to be
no actual record of it in Essex, though the species comes very near to
deserving admission to our county list, as the first British specimen of
this American species was shot early in September, 1826, near Melbourne
Cambridgeshire, in company with some Dotterel. It was skinned by
Mr. Baker, of Melbourne, from whom it was purchased by John
Sims for Mr. Yarrell {Trans. Linn. Soc, xvi. p. 109). Fifteen specimens
have since occurred in Britain. As Melbourne is the adjoining parish
to Heydon (Essex), this species certainly deserves mention here.]
Common Sandpiper : Tringoides hypoleucas. Locally, " Sum-
mer Snipe."
Not uncommon as a passing migrant in spring and autumn, when
on its way to and from its breeding-grounds further to the north and
west. I am not aware of its
having ever bred in Essex, and
Yarrell says (37. iii. 447) that
"along the east coast, from Essex
to Lincolnshire inclusive, it is
only known as a visitor 011 mi-
gration, and has not been known
to breed," though in Yorkshire it
breeds in many localities.*
Mr. Clarke says (24) that it used to
be " not uncommon" round Saffron
Walden. He mentions two shot at
Wenden on May 3rd, 1837, when they
may have been breeding. Several, he says, were killed in the previous Feb-
ruary and two st "the Roos " in 1840. Lindsey, writing of Harwich in 1851,
says (27. App. 50) that it " visits us in the summer, appearing in April, and
leaving us again by the end of September." He adds that it "is very gener-
ally known by the name of the Summer Snipe." At Harwich, Mr. Kerry says
it is now " common in August. These are the first Waders that return to us
after breeding." Chas. E. Smith records (31. 52) shooting one "last spring"
* Of the Spotted Sandpiper (Tringoides macularius), an American species, of doubtful occur-
rence in England, Edwards says (Gleanings of Natural History, p. 141) : "In the year 1743,
one of them was sent to me by my late worthy friend Sir Robert Abdy, Bart, who shot it near his.
seat of Albins in Essex. This, on inspection, I found to be a hen, and it differed in no respect
from the American Tringa, but in being without spots on its under side, except on the throat,
where it had a few small longish dusky spots down the shafts of the feathers. By my remarks on the
drawing of the hen bird, I find that it was sent to me in the month of May, and I believe it to be
a bird of passage, and very rarely seen in England." Of this specimen he gives a figure (Pl. 277).
Lewin (4. vi. 20) and Harting (38. 139) both accept this record, but it seems now to be agreed (37;
and Seebohm's Brit. Birds, iii. 123) that, although Edwards figured a genuine specimen from
America, the specimen from Essex was of the common species. Chas. E. Smith erroneously
records (31. 53) that another was "shot by a farmer by a small stream [in] 1858," near Coggeshall..