598 SANDERLING. 



female from the first authenticated eggs, on the Barren grounds near 

 the Anderson River ; while westward, the species ranges to North 

 Alaska. Following up its circumpolar distribution, the bird has been 

 found on the Liakoff Islands, the Taimyr Peninsula, the Yenesei 

 delta, New Siberia, Waigats, and several islands of the Spits- 

 bergen group. Except in the Baltic, where it is scarce, the 

 Sanderling is tolerably common on passage along the coasts of 

 Europe and of the Atlantic Islands, and a certain number winter in 

 the basin of the Mediterranean ; others visit Cape Colony and 

 Natal, the Persian Gulf, India to Ceylon, Java, Borneo, Australia, 

 the Marshall and Hawaiian Islands, the Kurils, Japan and China. 

 In America, south of its summer-haunts, it is found down to 

 Patagonia and Chile. 



The nest found by Col. Feilden was a depression in the centre of 

 a recumbent plant of arctic-willow, on a gravel-ridge several hundred 

 feet above the sea ; the eggs were greenish-buff spotted with brown, 

 resembling pale specimens of those of the Curlew in miniature : 

 measurements 1*4 by i in. lAke the Knot, this species was feeding 

 at its breeding-grounds on the buds of Saxifmga oppositifolia and 

 also on insects, but the stomachs of birds shot in this country 

 generally contain slender sea-worms, small bivalves and crustaceans, 

 with a little gravel. The fat on the body is sometimes nearly a 

 quarter of an inch in thickness. The Sanderling is remarkably 

 tame, and fairly sociable, consorting with Dunlins and other species 

 which frequent sandy shores ; it may, however, be easily recognized 

 by the conspicuous whiteness of its under-parts. The note is a 

 shrill ivick. 



The adult in summer-dress (represented in the foreground) has 

 the feathers of the upper surface black or dark brown in their centres, 

 edged or spotted with rufous and slightly tipped with grey ; a good 

 deal of white at the bases of the inner primaries and along the edges 

 of the greater wing-coverts ; central tail-coverts mottled like the 

 back, but those on each side conspicuously white ; face, neck and 

 upper breast pale chestnut, spotted with dark brown ; remaining 

 under-parts pure white ; bill black ; legs and feet dark olive (black 

 in winter). Length 8 in. (bill "9), wing 47 in. The female is slightly 

 larger than the male. By the latter part of August the rufous tints 

 on the back have nearly disappeared, leaving the black markings very 

 distinct ; by the end of October the upper plumage is chiefly ash- 

 grey and all the under surface is white. In the young bird the upper 

 feathers are black, spotted with white, and variegated with pale buff, 

 traces of the last colour appearing on the sides of the neck and breast. 



