CHARADRIID/E. 



605* 



THE SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 



ToTANUS MACULARius (Liiinceus). 



Since the Note on p. 606 was written, an example of this species 

 upon which no doubt rests has been obtained in Ireland, and was 

 exhibited by Mr. Frederick Curtis at a meeting of the British 

 Ornithologists' Club on the 15th of February 1899. The bird, 

 which proved to be a female on dissection, was shot on the 2nd of 

 that month near Finea, co. Longford, by Mr. Frank Roberts of 

 Windsor, and sent by him in the flesh to Mr. C. A. Veysey of 

 Windsor, who, in his turn, is a personal friend of Mr. Curtis. 

 The bird was very tame, and was feeding, when shot, in a meadow 

 much trodden by cattle by the side of the river Finea, and within 

 thirty yards of the village of the same name. There can now be no 

 reason for refusing this species a place in the list of occasional 

 visitors to the British Islands ; and indeed the probability of its 

 occurrence was never doubted, although the fact had not been 

 satisfactorily established. 



This American species has never been secured in Heligoland, and 

 Dr. Anton Reichenow does not include it among the visitors to 

 Germany, notwithstanding a French record of its acquisition on the 

 22nd of April 1875 at " Spire, Bavibre rhenane." In North America 

 to the south of the Arctic Circle this Sandpiper has a very extensive 

 range, breeding from Labrador to Texas, and from the shores of 

 the Atlantic to the mouth of the Yukon. It is found up to an 

 elevation of 8,000 to 9,000 feet, and even to the shores of the 



