246 PR.EUOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



the name of " Plover's Page." During the breeding-season it is not seen along the 

 shores. The young leave the nest immediately after exclusion, run about, and when 

 alarmed, conceal themselves by sitting close to the ground and remaining motionless. 

 If. during incubation, a person approaches their retreat, the male — and frequently 

 the female also — flies to meet the intruder, and employs the same artifices for decoy- 

 ing him from the nest or young as the Plover does. When the young are fledged, 

 the birds gather into flocks, often joining those of the Golden Plover, resting at 

 night on the ground in the siuoother parts of the heath. "When an intruder ap- 

 proaches such a flock, the birds stretch their wings up as if preparing for flight, utter 

 a few low notes, and either stand on the alert or run a few steps. Toward the end 

 of August they betake themselves to the sandy shores. On a large sand ford in 

 Harris, Mr. Macgillivray has, at tliis season, seen many thousands at once run- 

 ning about with extreme activity in search of food, the place seeming to be a general 

 rendezvous. Mr. Kewton states that Dr. Paulsen has more than once received 

 this species from Greenland, both young and in the autumnal plumage. It breeds 

 there, and also on the Melville Peninsula, as well as elsewhere on the coast of Davis 

 Strait. 



I have eggs in my collection taken in North Greenland ; but whether belonging to 

 this form or to the americana, I am not sure. There is no perceptible difference in 

 the eggs of the two species, so far as is known. Greenland specimens, perhaps of 

 the American form, are slightly larger than the average European. 



Pelidna subarquata. 



THE CURLEW SANDPIPER. 



Scolopax suharquata, GlJLD. Nov. Comm. Petrop. XIX. 1775, 471, pi. 18. — Gmel. S. K I. 1788, 658. 

 TriiKja subarquata, Temm. Man. I. 1815, 393 ; II. 1820, 609. — Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 104. — Aud. 



Orn. Biog. 1835, 444 ; Synop. 1839, 234 ; B. Am. V. 1842, 269, pi. 333 ; Cass, in Baird's B. K 



Am. 1858, 718. — 15.viiiD, Cat. K Am. B. 1859, no. 529. — CouES, Check List, 1873, no. 425 ; 



Birds N. W. 1874, 491. 

 Pelidna subarquata, Kidgw. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vol. 3, 1881, 200 ; Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 



540. 

 Tringa (Ancylocficilus) subarqxiata, Bonap. Cat. Met. 1842, 60. — CoUES, Key, 1872, 256. 

 AncyJochilus subo.rquatus, CouEs, Clieck List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 625. 

 ScoloiKix af?ica7ius, 'Gmel. S. N. I. 1788, 655. 

 Numcnius pygmanis, Bechst. Naturg. Deutselil. IV. 148. 

 ? Tringa islandica, Eetz. Fn. Suec. 1800, 192. 

 ? Tringa fcrniginca, Brunn. Orn. Bor. 1764, no. 180. 

 Trynga falcinclla. Pall. Zoog. Rosso- As. II. 1811, 188. 

 Pelidna macrorhyncha, Bkeiim, Vog. Deutschl. 1831, 658. 

 Ernlia variegata, Vieill. Analyse, 1816, 55. 

 ^roliavaria, Vieill. Gal. Ois. II. 1834, 89, pi. 231. 

 ' ' Scolopax Dcthanlingii, Si emssen. " ( G r. AY. ) 

 " Falcincllus cursoritcs, 'I'Kyni." (CouES.) 



IIab. The Old World in general ; occasional in Eastern North America. 



Sp. Char. Adult, summer pluraage: Back and scapulars variegated with black and rusty; 

 crown rusty, streaked with black. Head, neck, breast, sides, and l)elly, deep chestnut-rufous ; 

 anal region, also upper and lower tail-coverts, white, spotted with black and tinged with rusty ; 

 wing-coverts and tertials brownish gray, the greater coverts tipped with white ; primaries and 

 middle tail-feathers dark slate-color ; rest of the tail ash-gray, the feathers slightly bordered 

 with whitish ; axillars innnaculate pure white. Winter plumxi^ge : Above, brownish gray, in- 

 distinctly streaked with darker ; tail-coverts (above and below) pure white, spotted with black ; 

 superciliary stripe and lower parts white, the juguluni indistinctly streaked with grayish. 



