VOL. X.] NOTES ON TEMMINCKS STINT. Kil 



Seebohm seems to think that this trill is partly an 

 alarm call, for he S3.ys (Birds of Siberia, p. 217): — 

 " The Little Stint seems to be a very quiet bird at the 

 nest, quite different to the Temminck's Stint. When 

 you mvade a colony of the latter birds, especially if they 

 have young, the parents almost chase you from the spot 

 .... hovering in the air and trilling." I did not find 

 this pas.sage in Seebohm's book until I returned home ; 



,:■-••/.> -:-^ ..^;.^, ^'i'lJC'^^irJ^'i^^^'ilill' 



TEMMINCK'S STINT: ADJUSTING THE EGGS. 

 {Photographed by Miss M. D. Haviland.) 



and while I was in Temminck's Stint country, I regarded 

 the trilling as a courtship performance, not as a sign of 

 anger. Perhaps it is similar in nature to the drumming 

 of the Snipe, for it was not heard during the latter part of 

 incubation, nor when the young were hatched ; and 

 although no doubt it could be called forth, like the 

 bleating of the Snipe or the song of the Sedge-Warbler, 

 by a disturbance in the breeding groimds, it continued 

 day and night, whether a human intruder were present 

 or not. 



