XI.] 



THE SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPER. 



'431 



singular spoon-billed sandpij)er was at one time in spring so common 

 that it was twice served at the gvinroom table, for which after 

 our return home we had to endure severe reproaches from animal 

 collectors. This bird is found only in some few museums. It 

 was first described by LiNN.EUS in Museum Adolphi Friderici, 

 Tomi secundi 2^^'odrovius, Holmiae 1764, and then by C. P. 

 Thunberg in the Transactions of the Swedish Academy of 

 Sciences for 1816 (p. 194), where it is stated that the homeland 

 of this bird is tropical America. It has since been caught a few 

 times in south-eastern Asia. Probably, like Sylvia Eicersmanni, 

 it passes the winter in the PhiHppine group of islands, but in 

 summer visits the high north. Like several other birds which 

 appeared in spring with the first bare spots it disappeared in 

 ■July. Perhaps it retired to the interior to breed in the bush, or, 



EurijnoThynchus pygmeeus, L. 

 At the sWe the bird's bill seen from above, of the natural size. 



which is more probable, went farther north to the islands or 

 continents not yet discovered by Europeans, which in all pro- 

 bability connect Wrangel Land with the Franklin Archipelago. 

 The higher animal forms which, alono' with the Polar traveller, 

 dare to brave the cold and darkness of the Arctic night, exert 

 on him a peculiar attraction. Regarding these, Lieutenant 

 Nordquist has given me the following notes : — 



" The mammal most common in winter on the north coast of 

 the Chukch peninsula is the Aare. It differs from the fell hare 

 [Lepiis horcalis, Lillj.) by its larger size, and by the bones of its 

 nose not tapering so rapidly. It is generally met with in flocks 

 oi five or six on the hills in the neighbourhood of the tents, 

 which are covered only with a thin layer of snow, notwith- 



