Vol 'i^is XV ] Dixon, The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. 391 



that the first record (1859) was correct and that Captain Moore's 

 specimen really did come, as first recorded, "from the North- 

 eastern Coast of Asia." The present author believes this to have 

 been the case. 



Two other questionable American records of the Spoon-billed 

 Sandpiper have been reported. Ridgway (1881, p. 85) states: 

 " Spoon-billed Sandpiper — Point Barrow, Arctic Coast of Alaska, 

 fide Dr. T. H. Bean." Bean (1882, p. 165), however, records a 

 single specimen, secured by a native boy at Plover Bay, Siberia, 

 "most probably late in August, 1880." Seebohm (1888, p. 441) 

 states: "Nelson obtained a specimen in Alaska." This appears 

 to have been an error, since Nelson (1887, p. 112) states that he 

 secured a single specimen at Plover Bay, on the Siberian shore in 

 1881 and then adds "but not another individual of this rare bird 

 was seen." 



The only well established occurrence of the Spoon-billed Sand- 

 piper in America is that vouched for by Fred Granville of Los 

 Angeles, California, who on August 15, 1914, took two specimens 

 at Wainwright Inlet, on the Arctic Coast of Alaska (referred to 

 heretofore only casually, by Swarth, 1915, p. 136). One of these 

 specimens, a female, is now number 3552 in the collection of A. B. 

 Howell, of Covina, California, while the other, a male, is number 

 1698 in the collection of G. Willett of Los Angeles. Through the 

 courtesy of these gentlemen, the writer has been enabled to examine 

 the Granville specimens and to compare them with a male bird 

 taken at Cape Serdze, Siberia (no. 16699, Mus. Vert. Zool.), and 

 another male taken by Granville, July 12, 1914, at Russian Spit, 

 Siberia (no. 3551, Howell coll.). Both of the Wainwright speci- 

 mens, although taken the middle of August, are still in the summer 

 plumage, with the chestnut edgings of the feathers on the upper 

 parts, and the chestnut wash on the head and throat almost as 



the bird and the museum records concerning it have been examined by Mr. Henry Balfour, 

 curator of the Pitt Rivers Anthropological Museum at Oxford, England. The specimen is 

 still (February, 1918) mounted and in a good state of preservation at the Oxford Museum, 

 having been kept under a small bell-glass and away from strong light. No additional 

 information regarding the locality of capture of this specimen was, however, forthcoming. 

 The entry in the Catalogue of the Comparative Anatomy Department of the University 

 Museum at Oxford is as follows : "In summer plumage, obtained in Behring Strait by Capt. 

 Moore, 1849 "; while according to the label on the stand on which the specimen is mounted, 

 "This specimen was taken in Behring Straits." 



