scoi.oPACii).i<:. 



56: 



THE BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 



LiMicoLA PLATYRHYNCHA (Temiiiinck). 



The Broad-billed Sandpiper was first made known as a Yisitor to 

 the British Islands by Hoy, who recorded an example shot on .May 

 25th 1836, on Breydon Broad, Norfolk ; a locality which afforded 

 another on May 25th 1856, and a third on April 23rd 186S. .Mr. 

 W. Borrer has a specimen obtained near Shoreham, in October 

 1845 ') ^^d Sir H. S. Boynton possesses one killed at Hornsea Mere, 

 Yorkshire, in April 1863 ; while lastly, on August 13th 1887, Mr. W. 

 Burton killed one near Rye. According to Thompson one was 

 procured in Belfast Bay, Ireland, on October 4th 1844. 



It is evident that our islands lie outside the ordinary route taken 

 by this species ; yet it breeds no further off than the fells of 

 Scandinavia, and visits the coasts and inland waters of Denmark, 

 Germany, France and Switzerland. As yet it has not been noticed 

 in the Spanish Peninsula, but in Italy its occurrences, though 

 irregular, are not unfrequent, large flocks — which have probably made 

 use of the Brenner Pass — sometimes alighting in the marshes of 

 Venetia. From Finland and the tundras of European Russia, where 

 it also nests, a more easterly line of flight brings it to the Black 

 Sea and the Aralo-Caspian region, while it is found during winter in 

 some parts of the Mediterranean basin, including the shores of North 

 Africa as far as Egypt. Strange to say, it has not been met with by 

 any explorers in the Arctic portions of Asiatic Siberia, but Seven/off 

 obtained a specimen on the Pamir, and the bird is common in 



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