CHARADRIID/E. 



577 



THE BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 



LiMicoLA PLATVRHYNCHA (Teiiiminck). 



The Broad-billed Sandpiper was first made known as a visitor to 

 the British Islands by Hoy, who recorded an example shot on May 

 25th 1836, on Breydon Broad, Norfolk. This locality afforded a 

 second on May 25th 1856, a third on April 23rd 1858 (Zook p. 6096), 

 and a fourth on September 5th 1891, while another was killed at 

 Cley in August 1895. The late Mr. \V. Borrer had a specimen 

 obtained near Shoreham in October 1845, and three have since 

 been procured near Rye in the autumn or early winter of 1887, 

 1895, ^""^ 1896; while one was shot at Littlestone, Kent, in Sep- 

 tember of the year last mentioned. Sir H. S. Boynton possesses 

 one killed at Hornsea Mere, Yorkshire, in April 1863. One, shot 

 near Belfast, Ireland, on October 4th 1844, is in the Museum of 

 that city. 



It is evident that this species usually migrates to the eastward of 

 our islands ; although it breeds no further off than the Dovrefjeld and 

 other districts of Scandinavia, and visits the coasts and inland waters 

 of Denmark, Holland (seldom), Germany, France and Switzerland. 

 It has not yet been noticed in the Spanish Peninsula, but in Italy 

 its occurrences are not infrequent, though irregular, and large flocks 

 — which have probably made use of the Brenner Pass — sometimes 

 alight in the marshes of Venetia. From Finland and the tundras of 

 European Russia, where it nests, a south-easterly line of flight brings 

 it to the Black Sea and the Aralo-Caspian region ; Severtzoff 



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