AUSTRALIAN LIMICOL^. 955 



fact when we consider its wide range in other parts of the 

 globe. 



Returning to Asia we find that the Curlew Stint is a cold- 

 weather visitant to India, Burmah, Tenasserim, the Andaman 

 Islands, and Ceylon, in which latter island I usually observed 

 it, first arriving about the end of Sejjtember and departing 

 again in April. Numerous examples, however, remain 

 throughout the summer season in that island, most of them 

 being in the premature stage, although I have seen indi- 

 viduals during the month of July in partial breeding dress, 

 these being probably second-year birds which had not yet 

 arrived at the age for nesting. It is not uncommon hi North 

 West India, in Sindh, and on the Mekran coast, while on the 

 Sambhur Lake it has been obtained by Mr. Adam, an 

 Indian ornithologist, both during the months of May and 

 August, in full breeding plumage. This singular fact may 

 perhaps be explained by the May birds not having yet 

 migrated, and the August examples having returned from 

 their breeding haunts prior to moulting. It is however 

 remarkable that Pere David and Count Prjevalsky met with 

 this species in Mongolia and in the Hoangho Valley in 

 summer, while another naturalist and traveller. Dr. Hen- 

 derson, found it common near Yarkhand in the month of 

 August, all of which circumstances, in conjunction with 

 Swinhoe's observations in China and my own in Ceylon* go 

 to prove that this species, which migrates down the Siberian 

 rivers to the Arctic circle during the summer months, either 

 remains a very short time on its breeding grounds, returning 

 before moulting, or else breeds at irregular dates during the 

 season, some examples even nesting in undiscovered Central 

 Asian localities. Further west it is found during the spring 

 months on the Caspian and in Europe, where it is widely 

 dispersed ; there is a general migration in the spring from the 

 southern parts of the continent to the extreme north, and a 

 return movement in the autumn, at which time this species 

 is most common in England. In Northern Africa it is a 

 spring and autumn migrant, passing down both coasts to 

 Cape Colony, occurring likewise in Madeira on the west and 

 in Madagascar on the east side of the Continent. It has 

 been found in autumn, winter, and spring on the banks of 

 the Nile, and has been met with in every Httoral district in 

 Africa that has been scientifically examined. Lastly, it occurs 

 in Iceland in the summer, and is a straggler down the east 

 coast of the New World as far as the United States, 



