CURLEW-SANDPIPER. 



SCOLOPACID^.] 



TRINGA SUBARQUATA (Guldenstadt). 



The Curlew-Sandpiper is a spring and autumn migrant to the British Islands. 

 Its eggs are unknown. 



Desckibing the geographical distribution of this species, Mr. Howard Saunders 

 WTites*: — "The Curlew-Sandpiper has not yet been obtained in the Fteroes, 

 Iceland, Greenland or Spitzbergen, while in Scandinavia and even in Finland it 

 is principally observed on the autumnal migration, being very rare in spring. It 

 occurs near Archangel, and Mr. Seebohm shot a female on July 15th at the mouth 

 of the Petchora out of a small flock, while on the Yenesei, much further east, he 

 killed a bird in nuptial-dress close to the Arctic circle on June 15th ; but he did 

 not reach its nesting-ground, and Dr. Finsch's statement that he had found the 

 downy young on the Yalmal Peninsula was afterwards corrected. Dr. von 

 Middendorff" was nearly successful, for he observed the bird dispersed over the 

 tundras of the Taimyr in lat. 74° N. in June, and secured a female with a partially- 

 shelled egg in her oviduct ; Dr. Bunge noticed migrants passing over the Lena 

 delta, probably on their way to the Liakov Islands ; the ' Vega ' expedition obtained 

 a specimen close to Bering Strait on June 6th, 1879 ; and by a strange coincidence 

 Mr. J. Murdoch procured the first Alaskan example at Point Barrow on June 6th, 

 1883. With this exception, the species is unknown in Arctic America, while it 

 is of rare occurrence on the Atlantic sea-board of the United States. Retiu-ning 

 to Europe, we find the Curlew-Sandpiper as a migrant on all the coasts and along 

 several valley-routes, displaying its richest red plumage on the spring passage 

 through the basin of the Mediterranean. In winter it is found down to Cape 

 Colony and Tasmania, and all over the Indian region, the mountain-ranges of 

 Central Asia offering no barrier to its progress." 



The late Mr. H. Seebohm writes f : — " I'he habits of the Ciu'lew-Sandpiper 

 during the most interesting period of its existence are absolutely unknown .... 



* ' Manual of British Birds,' pp. 577, 578. 



t ' History of British Birds,' vol. iii. pp. 182, 183. 



