AUSTRALIAN LIMTCOL^E. 961 



though not yet recorded from Amoor Land, frequenting 

 the north island of Japan and Kamtschatka in the summer, 

 and passing in autumn down the coasts of Japan and China, 

 through Formosa and the Phihppines to the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, and thence to Australia, spreading, furthermore, 

 throughout a considerable portion of Polynesia. In the 

 Malay Archipelago it has been met with from September 

 till March in the islands of Morotai, Batchian, Aroo, 

 Ternate, Borneo, Halmahera, Ceram, South and North 

 Celebes, and others ; while from March until August (the 

 breeding season of northern migrants), Herr Meyer informs 

 me that it has been found in Celebes, Halmahera, Ceram, 

 Flores, Ternate, New Guinea, and Mactan (Philippines). A 

 more westerly stream of migration, j^erhaps passing doAvn 

 the Malay Peninsula, supplies Sumatra and Java with the 

 birds found there. In Australia it is universally distributed 

 round the entire coast-line, but has not been recorded from 

 the interior, though doubtless future observers may meet with 

 it on the Murray. It appears not to have been noticed of 

 recent years in Tasmania, but it will no doubt be found to 

 affect suitable localities in company with the Curlew when 

 more attention is given to our shore birds. It occurs as a 

 straggler in New Zealand and Lord Howe's Island ; and in 

 Polynesia its range extends through the Caroline and Marshall 

 Islands, New Caledonia, the Loyalties, and Fiji, which 

 appears to be its easterly limit in the Pacific. 



Turning now to the western form of the species, the 

 Whimbrel is a cold- weather visitant from Central Asia to 

 India, Burmah, Pegu, Tennasserim, the Andaman Islands, 

 and Ceylon. It is more a littoral bird than the Curlew, and 

 arrives in Ceylon in September, leaving again in March. 

 Along the coast of Sindh and the Persian Gulf it has been 

 met with, and is doubtfully recorded from Palestine. In 

 Northern Europe the Whimbrel is common, in the summer 

 breeding in Eastern Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Lapland. 

 It likewise nests in Iceland, the Shetlands, Orkneys, and the 

 north of Scotland. In England it is most plentiful in spring 

 and autumn, while on passage to and from the north ; but in 

 Spain, Portugal, the Azores, and Cape Verde it is chiefly 

 found in winter. In the autumn it migrates along the coast 

 of Africa, being found in Egypt and Abyssinia, and extends 

 down both sides of the Continent to Cape Colony, and is 

 hkewise met with in the Seychelles, Madagascar, Bourbon, 

 and Reunion, 



