A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 1 68. Avocet. Recurvlrostra avocetta, Linn. Hastings gave the following, in 1832, re- specting this bird : ' The avocet, Recurvlrostra avocetta, was shot a few years ago close to Worcester bridge.' Another avocet (unless it was the one above mentioned) was shot near Worcester a good many years ago, and when mounted by Mr. H. Holloway of that city, went into the collection of the late Mr. R. Berkeley, of Spetchley Park. Pennant {British Zoology, p. 400) gives as a locality for the occurrence of the avocet, the Severn's mouth, and he also says that it is found ' sometimes on the lakes of Shropshire.' It was probably not very rare at one time on the Severn. 169. Grey Phalarope. Phalaropus fulicarius (Linn.). This is an occasional visitor to our county in considerable numbers in certain seasons, but only occasionally, years passing without the occurrence of a solitary one. The most recent dates of its appearance are 1 89 1 and 1896, when a considerable number were ob- served, as I learn from Mr. Edwards, the curator of the Worcester Museum. He in- formed me that they frequented the meadows near Powick. 170. Woodcock. Scolopax rusticula, Linn. The woodcock is common as an autumn visitor, and is generally distributed in the county, though not anywhere very abundant. It requires places suited to its particular habits, which do not correspond with those of other Scolopacidts. Old sportsmen assert that the woodcock, besides frequenting wet places, is partial to dry bottoms in woods where there is underwood, and where the leaves in winter lie thick. These the woodcock is reported to turn over in the search for food, which is said to be insects ; and, furthermore, they say that they can determine whether it was a wood- cock or a blackbird which had been feeding. The latter bird, we know, flings the leaves ofF right and left, and leaves them scattered about ; but the woodcock, we are informed, merely turns them over. The woodcock breeds sparingly in Wyre Forest, and it is believed in some other of the large woods in Wor- cestershire ; Lees mentions Martley, Acton Beauchamp and Lulsley as localities where it has nested, and other localities could be given. 171. Great Snipe. Ga//inago major {Gmelin). I include this in the Worcestershire list wholly on the authority of Sir Charles Hast- ings ; but at most it is only a very casual straggler on the autumn migration. 172. Common Snipe. Ga/iinago ca^kstis {Fren- zel). It would be useless to say that the snipe is not much less abundant than formerly. Many places at one time suitable to its habits have been drained, and are no longer frequented. The snipe is very rarely seen with us in the summer, and I have never heard of a nest having been discovered. Occasionally, how- ever, one appears in the end of the summer or the early autumn. In July, 1 849, my brother, W. B. Tomes, flushed a snipe on several consecutive days from the dry and shingly bed of a brook in connection with the Avon, and, as the date as well as the spot was remarkable, he shot the bird on the 29th of that month. It came into my hands the same day, and when proceeding to preserve it, I observed what had the appearance of a flesh maggot in its mouth ; and such it proved to be. An examination of the spot revealed the presence in an overhang- ing withy tree of some parts of a dead sheep, which had been hung there by a shepherd, and from which had fallen the unusual food above mentioned, and on which the snipe had doubtless been feeding for several days. It was probably a distant straggler, and certainly a very remarkable one, all the upper parts being very richly and thickly pencilled with bright rufous, the usual light-coloured longitu- dinal markings being reduced to little more than mere lines. In the nature of the mark- ings on the back this bird bore some resem- blance to Sabine's snipe, though not in colour. 173. Jack Snipe. Gal/inago gal/inula (Linn.). This is essentially a solitary species, more than one being very seldom seen at the same spot except on migration. It is a skulking little bird, requiring more cover than the common snipe, but nevertheless is easily ac- commodated ; almost any dirty puddle by the side of a stream will do, but there must be some herbage amongst which it can hide, for it seldom appears on an open mud flat. About the middle of October is the date when we expect to notice some evidences of its first appearance. 174. Dunlin. Tringa a /piria, hinn. Although so abundant on the coast, it is remarkable how seldom the dunlin is seen in- land. It can indeed be mentioned only as a rare straggler. Lees says it is a wanderer from the coast, not more than four speci- mens have come within the observation of the writer during a period of half a century, one of which was killed by flying against the tele- graph wires of the railway near Evesham, and
