564 BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 



winter on the coast of Sind. It occurs again on Lake Baikal, and 

 commonly on the Sea of Okhotsk, visiting Japan, China, the 

 Philippines, Burma, and Eastern India: while, after another great 

 gap in its distribution, we find it at Madagascar, of course during 

 the cold season. 



Its nesting habits were first made known to English readers by 

 the late Richard Dann, who found small colonies of this Sandpiper 

 in the grassy morasses of Lulea- and Tornea-Lapmark, as well as at 

 about 3,000 feet above sea-level on the Dovrefjeld. WoUey's explora- 

 tions subsequently rendered us familiar with series of its eggs, which 

 vary in colour from rich chocolate to pale hair-brown mottled with 

 umber : average measurements i"2 by "9. According to Mr. Mitchell 

 the lining of the nest — -which is placed in a tussock of grass — is suited 

 to the colour of the eggs, the darkest ones being laid on the brown 

 withered leaves of the mountain-willow, and the lighter ones on 

 grass ; he found them on the Dovrefjeld as early as May 15th, but 

 in Lapland the latter part of June is the usual time for laying. The 

 bird sits very close and, when flushed, usually drops again a short 

 distance off ; early in the season, however, it soars high in the air, 

 rising and falling suddenly, like a Snipe, and repeating the note 

 too-tc'oo, rapidly. The food consists of insects and their larvse. 



The adult in breeding-plumage has the feathers of the crown, 

 shoulders and mantle very dark brown variegated with white and 

 rufous, the latter colour predominating on the margins of the long 

 inner secondaries ; quills and central tail-feathers blackish, outer 

 tail-feathers pale ash-brown ; throat and breast white, tinged with 

 rufous and spotted with dark brown, as are also the flanks ; belly 

 white ; bill high at the base, very flat and wide, and rather abruptly 

 decurved near the tip ; legs and feet dark olive. The sexes are 

 alike in plumage, but the female is slightly larger ; whole length 

 6'5 in., wing 4-25 in. In the young the upper feathers are more 

 broadly margined with greyish-white. In winter the general upper 

 plumage is ash-grey, very similar to that of our Dunlin ; but a 

 distinctive characteristic is the small amount of white on the 

 secondaries and the sides of the upper tail-coverts. 



