little-known Limicolae. 431 



Paris"'^ ; and the last-mentioned remark is repeated in his 'Com- 

 plement des oeuvres de Buffou ' [L c) . Three years only after this 

 statement appeared, Dr. Hartlaub searched the Museum in Paris 

 for the specimen referred to, but without success ; and I myself 

 more recently have likewise been unable to find it there. Dr. 

 Hartlaub is of opinion f that Lesson must have mistaken some 

 other bird for Eurynorhynchus, and that it was an error to 

 suppose that this species had ever been killed in France J. When 

 we call to mind the occasional appearance in Western Europe 

 of many other eastern species, it cannot be asserted that the occur- 

 rence of Eurynorhynchus py(j7naus in France is impossible. At 

 the same time, it may be confidently stated that up to the 

 present time there is no evidence to show that this species has 

 been found even in Europe. 



In 1836, Mr. Pearson, who w'as then Curator of the Asiatic 

 Society^s Museum at Calcutta, published in the 'Asiatic Re- 

 searches' (/. c.) an able description of the Spoon-billed Sand- 

 piper from a specimen in the winter plumage, which had been 

 procured on Edmonstone's Island, Saugur Sand, and presented 

 to the Society's Museum by Mr. Newcombe ; and he very pro- 

 perly took this opportunity of restoring the specific name which 

 had been bestowed by Linnaeus. Subsequently Mr. Blyth§ 

 <!xpressed a doubt whether this specimen was identical with the 

 bird described by Linnaeus, and in consequence named it provi- 

 sionally Eurynorhynchus orientalis. He has, however, lately 

 informed me of a change in his views ; and recent investigation 

 shows that there is no ground for supposing that there is more 

 than one species of this genus. Mr. Pearson illustrated his 



* It was probably on tlie strength of this assertion that Bonaparte 

 introduced this species in his ' Comparative List of the Birds of Europe 

 and North America ' (/. c.) as a Em-opean species. 



t Revue Zoologique, 1842, p. 30, 



X M. Jides Verreaux has recently informed me that no specimen of 

 Eurynorhynchus ever existed in the Paris Museiun, and that the bird to 

 which Lesson referred under the name of Eurynorhynchus yrisetis, and 

 subsequently under the name of Erolia varia, Vieillot, is nothing else 

 than a Trinya subarcuata with the hind toes cut off, and the bill remodelled 

 with the aid of some warm water ! 



§ Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1844, xiii. pp. 178, 179. 



