CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
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-1 
EURINORHYNCHUS PYGRANUS (?) 
(97.) THE SPOONBILLED SAND PIPER. 
This peculiarly marked bird has recently had several very interesting additions made to its 
known history by the observations made by Nordenskiéld in the spring of 1879, by Dr. Bean in 
the summer of 1880, and myself in 1881. On the northeast coast of Siberia Nordenskiéld records 
this bird as occurring in such numbers that on two occasions in spring it was served upon 
their mess table on board the Vega while they were lying frozen in at their winter quarters. It 
arrived in spring at Tapkan, with the first bare spots, early in June, and disappeared in July. To 
the westward, in the same vicinity, during the summer of 1881, I saw several of these birds, and 
at Plover Bay, on the Bering Sea shore of the same coast, secured a fine adult female in breeding 
plumage, taken on June 26. Nothing peculiar was observed in its habits, and i approached the 
bird without difficulty or its showing the slightest concern as it stood on the flat at that place. 
The bird was first seen feeding in the shallow water at the edge of a pool, and then stood with its 
head drawn back and without paying the slightest attention to me untilit was shot. It is a hand- 
somely plumaged species, as is shown in the accompanying plate by Mr. Ridgway. There is a 
single known instance of its occurrence on the American coast, and this was at Hotham Inlet, 
where a specimen was secured by the English ship Plover during the summer of 1849. The record 
of this specimen is in the proceedings of the London Zoologieal Society for 1871, page 110, where 
we learn that this specimen taken on Choris Peninsula, Hotham Inlet, was lately presented to the 
Oxford Museum, among other birds in the collection of Sir John Barrow. 
In the Ibis for 1875, Mr. Swinholm records a specimen killed at Hakodadi, Japan, in September, 
and it is well known as a winter resident in the south of Asia, its summer home being apparently, 
trom the records we now possess, the northeastern Arctic shores of Asia. There have been 
various records of the bird in Europe, and especially in France. But Mr. Harting doubts their 
authenticity, and says: “M. Jules Verreaux has recently informed me that no specimen of Bury- 
norhynchus ever existed in the Paris Museum, and that the bird to which Lessing refers under the 
head of Eurynorhynchus Griseus, and a specimen under Hrolia varia, Vieillot, is nothing less than a 
Tringa with the hind toes cut off and bill remodeled with the aid of some warm water.” 
The proceedings testified to the rarity of this species in French Museums, and the manner 
in which an artificial evolution may beencompassed. Mr. Harting continues by stating that nothing 
is known of its nesting, and he refers to the unexplored region of Northeastern Asia as the place 
likely to afford light on this point as well as upon & number of other little known species, and his 
surmise has proved correct in this instance at least. A passable figure of this bird ia breeding 
plumage, taken from the specimen secured on the Choris Peninsula by the Plover, is to be found 
in the [bis for 1869. Up to October of this year twenty-four specimens were known to Mr. Harting, 
of which twenty-three were recorded from Southern India, and these were doubtless all in winter 
plumage. 
The description of the specimen secured by me is as follows: Crown feathers with blackish 
centres edged with rusty reddish approaching chestnut. Back of neck with the dark centres 
becoming much fainter and the borders rufous, changing to buffy reddish, which, in addition to 
edging the feathers, appears to wash their surface and the dark central portions. The back and 
scapulars have well-marked black centres edged with rufous buffy and grayish intermixed. The 
tertials have dark brownish centres edged with grayish and russet. Wing coverts light brown 
edged with gray. The secondaries largely white, and an imperfect wing-bar formed by the white 
tips to the secondary coverts. Quills grayish brown approaching black at the tips. The chin is 
whitish, washed with a pale shade of rufous, this latter shade becoming bright over the sides of 
the head and entire lower surface of neck, reaching the upper portion of the breast. The forehead 
and around the base of bill washed with grayish over the rufous bases of feathers. The breast is 
rich buffy, changing to white on the posterior half of breast and entire abdomen. <A scattered 
band of dark opaque shaft spots cross the breast, and extend back on the sides which are other- 
wise white. The tail is dark ashy brown; Dill, foot, and tarsus black. The wing measures 3.95 
inches; the tail, approximately, 1.50 inches. This member was injured by shot to such an extent 
