SCO LOP A CID.-E—SANDPIPERS. 



247 



CURLEW SANDPIPER. 



(After Bewick.) 



in the month of May, a.lding (37. iii- 399) that it has been occasionally met with 

 on the Essex coast. 



Curlew Sandpiper : Tringa subarqunta. Locally, " Little 

 Jack Curlew " (E.A.F.). 



Not very uncommon on our coast as a spring and autumn migrant- 

 It is remarkable, as the only British Bird whose eggs still remain 

 undiscovered. 



Sheppard and Whitear 

 met with it on Peewit Island 

 (9. 43). Mr. Clarke (24) re- 

 cords one killed at Bumpstead 

 on Feb. 2nd, 1832. Henry 

 Doubleday says (10) that in 

 1832 he saw in a Collection 

 at Colchester, a specimen ob- 

 tained on the adjacent coast. 

 He also says he shot several 

 at Walton-on-the-Naze on 

 Oct. 4th 1833. "A speci- 

 men, procured by the late 

 Mr. Doubleday of Popping, 

 was presented by him to the 

 British Museum" (Buxton 

 —47. 97), and is perhaps one of the above. Mr. Bond met with a few specimens 

 at Southend early in Sept., 1842 (23. 40). Among the birds left by the late Col. 

 Russell was a specimen in summer plumage killed in Essex— probably on Aug. 

 1st 1883, when he records shooting three from a flock of Dunlins. They were 

 in partial moult and another was seen (40. v. 52)- Round Harwich, some are 

 seen every year, and it was " fairly common " in the autumn of 1889 (Kerry). 

 Mr. Hope observes that they are fairly plentiful amongst the " Oxbirds " on the 

 coast in September. Mr. Pettitt has one shot by his brother at Paglesham on 

 Aug. 29th, 1889. 



Purple Sandpiper : Tringa striata. 



A rather rare winter visitor to our coast. 



Sheppard and Whitear " once observed a Sandpiper, which appeared to be- 

 long to this species, flying along the shore of the Stour, hovering like a bird of 

 prey, and continually darting down close to the ooze " (9. 43)- Mr. W. H. Hill 

 of Southminster mentions (12. vi. p. 452) having twice seen it near that place 

 about 1833. Parsons shot one on the Saltings on New England Island, Nov. 25th, 

 1836, and his Collection contains another shot on the shore atShoeburyJ in Jan., 

 1855 ; also a male in its first winter, having still a few feathers left of its first 

 plumage, shot on Southend beach on Nov. loth, 1837. Dr. Bree notes one (32a) 

 shot at Mersea in Dec, 1869. Between the 6th and loth of November, 1876, 

 seven were shot on the stone breakwater at Harwich (Kerry— 40. 52). One was 

 shot near Walton-on-the-Naze early in November, 1879 (29- Nov. 8), and Mr. J. 

 Backhouse jun., shot three there out of a party of five in Dec, 1888. Mr. Hope, 

 who has a male shot on Dovercourt Breakwater on Nov. 14th, 1888, says they are 

 becoming " less common than formerly." Mr. Baxter has one shot on Canvey 



