NATURAL SOIK ICSS OF Pair.ABELPHTA. Si 



RECUR VIROSTRIDsE. 



141. Himantopus NiQRicoiiLis -I have found the Stilt Plover about the 

 Salinas along the coast from Port Royal to Old Harbour, during; the entire 

 year; they are often seen about the Hashes made by the inroad of the Rio 

 Cobre at Passage Fort and the Salt Pans, and Salina at Hanson's or Great Salt 

 Pond, (and I make no doubt they breed throughout the- island.) The eggs 

 are generally found in a tussock of prass; from recollection they are stone 

 color, splashed all over with vandyke brown and pale bistre spots. 



Recurvirostka Americana. The American Avoset has been identified by 

 Mr. Hill ; it must be a rare visitor, as I have never met with it. 



SCOLOPACIDJS. 



242, 255. Actodromas mixutilla. The little Sand-pipers are found at all 

 seasons, though tuost abundant in the late autumn and early winter months ; 

 they are not, however, uncommon during the spring and summer. They 

 breed on the Salinas and sandy beach, laying three or four eggs on the 

 bare sand ; these are yellowish, splashed with reddish brown and greyish 

 spots principally about the large end. I have had eggs from Great Salt Pond 

 and Passage Fort. 



129, 131. Calidris arenaria. The Sanderling is a regular annual visitor 

 I have a pair shot at Great Salt Pond on the 20th August, 1883. 



205, 254. Micropalama himantopus. The Stilt Sandpiper is not uncommon 

 during the spring and summer. I have not met with the egg, though I am 

 sure it must breed here, as 1 have specimens of birds collected in April, Jane 

 and August of 1S63. 



130. Symphemia semipalmata. The Willet, known here as the Spanish 

 Plover, is not uncommon in some years during and after the autumnal rains. 

 1 have never seen it in summer, though it is said to breed in Saint Elizabeth. 



124. RaYACopuiLDS soutartus. The Solitary or Pond Snipe is never seen in 

 company a single bird or pair only is found usually about the cattle ponds. 

 The e.gs are laid on the bare ground. I have taken several nests, but have 

 no certain recollection of the eggs. 



128. Tringa canutus. The Knit or White-bellied Snipe is also found So 

 solitary loneliness on river banks, or marshy borders of ponds or fresh watiy 

 streams, at all seasons of the year, but I have not yet met with the eggs. 



127. Gallinago wilsoni. The Jack Snipe is common from the end of Sep 

 tember till December, and thence till April becomes almost solitary ; in the 

 la'ter months at early dawn, after a moonlight night, a single specimen is 

 sometimes found, on the dry pastures of salt ponds, mistaking, no doubt, for 

 water the glittering appearance caused by the moonlight on patches oi 

 parched, low grass. En some years they are abundant, in others scarce ; for 

 the last two or three years, 1861, 1862, 1863, they have been the latter in 

 the south midland plains, but have been abundant in the highlands. When 

 they first arrive they lie in considerable numbers along the borders of poradu, 

 or margins of marshy lands, in every part of the island. Many years ago. 

 early in October, in company with the late Captain St. John, then Island En- 

 gineer, we shot more than seventy brace in three days over a small Guinea 

 cornfield of about six acres; the land had been previously burnt off, and the 

 corn was then only a few inches high ; the water from the then recent heavy 

 rains lying in the intervals and in pud lies about the fidld, which adjoiaatj 

 woodlaud on two sides. 



Aot;turit.3 BAurs\Mius? The Short billed Scupe is an occasional visitor. I 

 1864.] 



