422 SCOLOPACID^. 



to H.M.S. * Alert,' found a nest containing two eggs, on 

 which the male bird was sitting, on the 24th June, 1876, in 

 lat. 82'' 33' N., in Smith's Sound, where it was not uncommon. 

 On Parry's first Arctic Expedition it was described by Sabine 

 as breeding in considerable numbers on the North Georgian 

 or Parry Islands. The first authenticated eggs on record 

 appear to have been obtained by Mr. MacFarlane when col- 

 lecting for the Smithsonian Institution on the Barren Grounds 

 near the Anderson River, the parent bird — the female in this 

 case — having been shot from the nest. Westward its range 

 extends to Alaska and the Pribilov Islands. Following up 

 its circumpolar distribution, it occurs in the breeding-season 

 along the Arctic coasts of Asiatic Siberia, the ill-fated 

 ' Jeannette ' party having found it in considerable numbers 

 on Thaddeus Island, one of the Liakhov group, on the 30th 

 August, 1881 ; Middendorff found it on the Taimyr up to 

 74" N. lat. ; it was observed by Von Heuglin on Novaya 

 Zemlya and Waigats ; and it probably breeds near the mouth 

 of the Petchora, where Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown 

 shot it, although time did not permit of a successful search 

 for its eggs. On the coasts of Northern Europe (with the 

 exception of the Baltic, where it is scarce), the Sanderling 

 is more or less abundant on passage, and it is tolerably 

 common on the shores and islands of the Mediterranean. 

 Visiting the Canaries and Madeira, its migrations down the 

 west side of Africa extend to Cape Colony ; and, on the 

 east, it passes along the Red Sea and continues to Natal and 

 Madagascar, It is common in winter along the Mekran 

 coast, at Kurachee, and in the Gulf of Kutch, but in 

 Southern India it has seldom been observed, and it has only 

 recently been recorded from Ceylon. In the Eastern Archi- 

 pelago it cannot at present be traced farther south than 

 Borneo and Java ; it is a regular visitor to the east coast 

 of China, and it has occurred in Japan, and the Kuril 

 Islands. 



In America, south of its Arctic breeding-grounds, it occurs 

 on migration along the greater part of the coast, and, includ- 

 ing the West Indian Islands, it is found down to Tombo 



