114.  COMMON SANDPIPER. Totanus hypoleucos, Linnaeus.  French, “Chevalier guignette.”—­The Common Sandpiper, or Summer Snipe as it is sometimes called, is a spring and autumn visitant, but never a numerous one, sometimes, however, remaining till the summer.  One of Mr. De Putron’s men told me he had seen one or two about their pond all this summer (1878), and he believed they bred there; but as to this I am very sceptical; I could see nothing of the bird when I visited the pond in June and July, and I fancy the birds stayed about, as they do sometimes about my own pond here in Somerset, till late perhaps in May, and then departed to breed elsewhere.  The latest occurrence I know of was one recorded by Mr. Couch in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1874, as having been killed on the 3rd of October.  Mr. Couch adds that this was the first specimen of the Common Sandpiper he had had since he had been in the Islands.

The Common Sandpiper is included in Professor Ansted’s list, and marked as occurring in Guernsey and Sark.  There is no specimen in the Museum.

115.  BARTAILED GODWIT. Limosa lapponica, Linnaeus.  French, “Barge rousse.”—­The Bar-tailed Godwit is a regular and sometimes rather numerous spring and autumn visitant.  In May, 1876, a considerable number of these birds seem to have rested on the little Island of Herm, where the keeper shot three of them; two of these are now in my possession, and are very interesting, as though all shot at the same time—­I believe on the same day—­they are in various stages of plumage, the most advanced being in thorough breeding-plumage, and the other not nearly so far advanced; and the third, which I saw but have not got, was not so far advanced as either of the others.  In the two which I have the change of colour in the feathers, without moult, may be seen in the most interesting manner, especially in the least advanced, as many of the feathers are still parti-coloured, the colouring matter not having spread over the whole feather; in the most advanced, however, nearly all the feathers were fully coloured with the red of the breeding-plumage.  This red plumage remains till the autumn, when it is replaced, after the moult, by the more sombre and less handsome grey of the winter plumage.  Though the Bar-tailed Godwit goes far north to breed, not breeding much nearer than Lapland and the north of Norway and Sweden, both old and young soon show themselves again in the Channel Islands on their return journey, as I shot a young bird of the year in Herm the last week in August.  Most of the autumn arrivals, however, soon pass on to more southern winter quarters, only a few remaining very late, perhaps quite through the winter, as I have one shot in Guernsey as late as the 14th of December; this one, I need hardly say, is in full winter plumage, and of course presents a most striking difference to the one shot in Herm in May.

The Bar-tailed Godwit is included in Professor Ansted’s list, but only marked as occurring in Guernsey.  It is, however, as I have shown, perhaps more common in Herm, and it also occurs in Alderney.  There is a series of these in the Museum in change and breeding-plumage.