5.78 BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 



obtained a specimen on the Kara-kul Pamir, and the species is 

 found locally in various districts of India, though common only at 

 the mouths of the Indus and the Irawaddy. Strange to say, it has not 

 been found breeding in the Arctic portion of Siberia, but it occurs 

 on Lake Baikal and plentifully on the Sea of Okhotsk ; visiting 

 Japan, China, the Philippines, the Malayan region, and the Moluc- 

 cas in the cold season. From North Africa and Egypt, its winter- 

 progress can be traced along the Red Sea to Madagascar. 



The nesting-habits were first made known to English readers by 

 the late Richard Dann, who found small colonies of this Sandpiper 

 in the grassy morasses of Lulea- and Tornea-Lapmark, as well as at 

 about 3,000 feet above sea-level on the Dovrefjeld. Wolley's ex- 

 plorations subsequently rendered us familiar with a series of its eggs, 

 which vary in colour from rich chocolate to greenish-brown, mottled 

 with umber: measurements 1*2 by '9. According to Mr. F. S. 

 Mitchell the lining of the nest— which is placed in a tussock of 

 grass — is suited to the colour of the eggs, the darkest ones being laid 

 on the brown withered leaves of the mountain-willow, and the lighter 

 ones on grass ; he found them on the Dovrefjeld as early as June 9th, 

 but in Lapland the latter part of that month is the usual time for 

 laying. Incubation spots were found by Prof Collett in both sexes. 

 The bird sits very close and, when flushed, usually drops again a 

 short distance off; early in the season, however, it soars high in the 

 air, rising and falling suddenly, like the Snipe, and repeating the 

 note toa-woo^ rapidly. The food consists chiefly of insects and their 

 larv?e. 



The adult male in breeding-plumage has the feathers of the 

 crown, shoulders and mantle very dark brown, variegated with white 

 and rufous, the latter colour predominating on the margins of the 

 long inner-secondaries ; quills and central tail-feathers blackish, 

 outer tail-feathers pale ash-brown ; throat and breast white, tinged 

 with rufous and spotted with dark brown, as are also the flanks ; 

 belly white ; bill high at the base, very flat and wide, and rather 

 abruptly decurved near the tip ; legs and feet dark olive. Length 

 6'5 in. (bill i "2), wing 4*25 in. The female is somewhat paler on 

 the back, and slightly larger. In the young the upper feathers are 

 more broadly margined with greyish-white. In winter the general 

 upper plumage is ash-grey, very similar to that of our Dunlin ; but 

 a distinctive characteristic is the small amount of white on the 

 secondaries and the sides of the upper tail-coverts. 



