820 NESTS AND EGGS OF AVSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



While Mr. Ed. Degen, my son and I were wading through a shallow 

 swamp on the Wen-ibee Plains, seeking for a Spvir-wingcd Plover's nest 

 (which, by the way, we foimd with three eggs just chipped), we flushed 

 two or three Sharp-tailed Stints, which were tame and alighted again a 

 short distance away amongst the water weeds. Their action on the 

 wing was jerky and butterfly-like. Date, 3rd October, 1896. 



The breeding haunts of the Sharp-tailed Stint are still shrouded 

 in mystery, and its eggs are written down " undescribed, " but 

 Mr. Seebohm supposes it breeds in Dauria. 



633. — Ancylochilus .subarquatus, Giildnest. — (523) 

 CURLEW STINT. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Au'^tralia, fol., vol. vi., pi. 32. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxiv., p. 586. 



Geographical Dii^trihution. — Australia in general, and Tasmania; 

 also New Guinea, Africa, India, &c., migrating to the Arctic regions to 

 breed. 



Nest and Eggs. — Undescribed. 



Ohsfrvationn. — Although its precise breeding grounds arc yet undis- 

 covered, the Ciurlew Stint or Sandpiper is an Ai-ctic-breeding species. 

 In the seasonal changes of its plumage it resembles the Knot (the 

 following species), as the bird changes the red or nifous livery of summer 

 for the gi-eyish coat of winter. Like the rest of the Sandpipers it 

 resorts to the shingly beaches and the banks of estuaries and rivers in 

 nearly every part of Australia and Tasmania. The specimens I noted 

 on that famous feeding-gi-oimd — the Abrollios — were either single or in 

 twos or threes about the shores, but none appcai-ed in full plumage — that 

 is, in the rufous stage. The lenglh of the bird is between 7 inches and 

 8 inches, including a compai'atively long bill of lA inches. As Colonel 

 Legge states, this flne Sandpiper maintains its interest for the orni- 

 thologist owing to its nest and eggs still being unknown, a fact rendered 

 all the more curious by the very brief space of time it evidently spends 

 in the Arctic regions. 



The egg figured in my manual, " Nests and Eggs," as pertaining to 

 the Curlew Stint, was obviously an error. 



634. — TiuNGA CANUTite. Linnreus. — (525) 



KNOT. 



Figure.— Gau\A: Birds of Great Britain, fol., vol. iv , pi. 65. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxiv., p. 593. 



Previous Description of Eggs.—Mexxium : .\uk, vol. ii., p. 313 (1881;). 



Geograjjhica/ Dufrihution. — South Queensland, New South Wales, 

 Victoria and South Australia; also New Zealand, Africa and South 

 America, migrating to the Arctic regions to breed. 



