SOLITARY SANDPIPER. 



SCOLOPACID^.] 



TOTANUS SOLITARIUS (AVilson). 



There are only three British records of the occurrence of this American 

 species. An example was shot in Scotland, another in the Scilly Islands, and 

 the third was obtained in Cornwall. Authentic eggs appear to be unknown.* 



Mr. Howard Saunders describes the geographical distribution of the Solitary 

 Sandpiper as follows f: — "In America the 'Wood-Tattler,' as it is often called, 

 appears to be generally distributed during the breeding-season from the vicinity 

 of the Arctic circle southward to about 44° N. lat., and across the continent from 

 the Atlantic to the Lower Yukon in Alaska. Many ornithologists have observed 

 it in summer, and Mr. Nelson has several times taken the young when just able 

 to fly in Illinois, yet nothing is known of its nidification, for the description and 

 dimensions given by the late Dr. Brewer of an egg taken in Vermont and ascribed 

 to this species indicate a strong probability of some error.J The spring arrival in 

 the United States takes place in May, while the retui-n migration begins in July 

 in the northern districts, and even in the south few individuals remain after 

 October. On passage this bird visits the Bermudas, the West Indies, Mexico 

 and Central America, but its principal winter quarters are further south, in Brazil, 

 Paraguay and the Eiver Plate States." 



The late Dr. T. M. Brewer observed a pair of Solitary Sandpipers under 

 circumstances which he describes as follows § : — " Early in August 1878, 1 noticed 

 a pair of this species with a brood of four young hardly able to fly, near an open 

 reservoir of rain-water, on Appledore, Isles of Shoals. These were too young to 

 have come to that island over the water, the distance being nine miles : and that 



* Capt. Chas. Bendire (Hon. Curator Oological Department, U.S. Nat. Museum) informs me 

 that he does not know of a single fully identified egg of this species in any collection. He considers 

 it possible that, like the Green Sandpiper, it nests in trees, and that this may partly account for the 

 nests having hitherto escaped observation. 



t ' Manual of British Birds,' p. 597. 



J [The egg referred to is figured by Mr. Eiwin A. Capen in his ' Oology of New England ' 

 (plate xii. fig. 6).— F. P.] 



§ • "Water Birds of North America,' vol. i. p. 282. 



2n 



