2 SCOLOPACID.E. 



found tlio species common on the Porsanger-fjortl in Norway, showing that its 

 range extended further to the westward than had previously been supposed ; and 

 in July 1S75 Messrs. Seebohm and Harvic-Brown were the tirst to take the eggs 

 in Europe, near the mouth of the Petchora* Nesting-places have since been 

 discovered by Mr. Henke near Archangel, by Mr. E. Rae in the Kola Peninsula, 

 by Prof. Collett in Northern Norway, and by Dr. O. Finsch near the Kara Gulf; 

 while eggs were brought to Mr. Seebohm on the Yenesei f , thus connecting the 

 chain from the westward with the Taimyr. Birds found on the Lena delta and 

 further east in Siberia have redder breasts in breeding-plumage, though undistin- 

 truishable in -winter, and have been distinguished as T. riiJifoUis." 



I translate the following account of Middendorff's discovery of the nest and 

 eggs of the Little Stint in 1843 on the Taimp- river in Siberia from his 'Sibirische 

 Reise' J : — •' On the 1st July I observed a female of this species running to^va^ds 

 me with puft'ed-out feathers and with its head drawn towards its body. It was so 

 eager in the defence of its nest, that I had time to take off my game-bag and 

 throw it over the bird. Four eggs of a greenish colour spotted with brown lay in 

 a depression in the moss on the swampy low-lying ground, and hardly twenty 

 yards distant from a large pool. In the nest there were only dried Avillow-leaves 

 as a foundation, and these h;ul \ery likely been drifted together by the wind, and 

 not collected by the bird. The eggs resemble those figured by Thienemanu." i§ 



The history of the discovery of the eggs of the Little Stint by Messrs. HarA-ie- 

 Brown and Seebohm in the Petchora in 1875 is so well known as to render 

 its reproduction here unnecessary. Full details will be found in the late 

 Mr. Seebohm's own ornithological works and elsewhere. The nests were dis- 

 covered on the tundras near the mouth of the Dvoinik River between July 22nd 

 and 27th. and one described was a mere depression in the ground, lined with 

 dead leaves and other dry material scraped together to form a lining. The eggs, 

 usuallv four in number, were much incubated. As far as was observed incubation 



• [Since this was written eggs have also boeu obtained on Kolgiuev. — F. P.] 



t [Mr. H. Lej-borne Popham informs me that last year (1895) he found the Little Stint nesting 

 in lat. 72' N. on the Yenisei ; the birds, which were numerous and tame, wei-e not observed south of 

 this.— F. P.] 



i Rind ii. Theil ii. p. 221. 



§ [In 'Xatui-e' of August 22nd, 1895, the late Mr. H. Seebohm stated that the eggs recorded by 

 Middeudorft' as being those of the Little Stint weiv probably those of T. mjicollis or possibly those of 

 T. siihminuta. In the same periodical, under date September 5th, 1895, Prof. A. Newton confutes 

 this statement, and uses couvincinj; arguments to show that Middendortt" was perfectly correct in 

 recording the eggs as being those of the Little Stint. — F. P.] 



