History of British animals - University of Guam Marine Laboratory

94 BIRDS. GRALLJE.aa.Tridactyhu.b. Bill slender.Calidris.bb. Bill strong.c. Bill compressed.d. Bill swollen at the end.Charadrius.Oidicnemus.dd. Bill wedged shaped.Hsematopus.cc. Bill vaulted.Otis.In no department of British Ornithology does there exist somuch confusion as among the Grallag, in reference to nativespecies.Numerous stragglers, both from America and Europe,have been enrolled in our systematical cataloguesas Britishsubjects. Several species, which were formerly natives, butwhich, by the influence of civilization, have been reduced tothe rank of stragglers,still maintain their place as citizens, as iftheir geographical distribution had experiencedno check. Itis surely time to reduce these redundancies, and exhibit our listof native birds freed as much as possible from foreigners.Underthe influence of these feelings, I judge it unnecessary to describeformallythe two following species.1. Glareola torquata. Austrian Pratincole. (Temm. Orn. ii. 500.)— Thisspecies, which may be readily distinguished from the other British Grallse,by its remarkably wide mouth, has twice occurred in this country. Thefirst was shot near Ormskirk, in Lancashire, in 1807, and is now in the collectionof Lord Stanley. The second was killed by Mr Bullock in Unst, themost northerly of the Zetland Isles, on the 13th August— 1812. See Mont.Orn. Diet. Suppt. and Lin. Trans, ix. 198, Bullock, Lin. Trans, xi. 177-2. riatea Leucorodia. Common Spoonbill. {Temm. Orn. ii.595.)—Thethin, flat, enlarged extremity of the bill, is an obvious distinguishing mark ofthe species.It was first recorded by Merret, (Pinax 181.) on the authority ofTurner, as inhabiting Lincolnshire and ; by Sibbcdd, (Scot. 111. 18.) as an accidentalvisitant of Scotland. He states (Auct. Mus. Balf. 195.) having receivedit from Orkney. It has since been noticed by Pennant (Brit. Zool. ii.634.) as migrating, in a flock, into the marshes near Yarmouth, in Norfolk, inApril 1774.— Pidteney, (Dorset Cat. 14.) records it as accidentally a visitant ofDorsetshire.— Montagu (Orn. Diet. Supp.) mentions one shot in March, andanother in November, at King's-Bridge, Devonshire. It has likewise beenshot in Zetland.