226 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



(probably ninety per cent.) are birds of the year, and new to the road. That the 

 Spotted Sandpiper has visited the British Islands there can be no doubt. I will 

 go further, and say that is is probable the bird comes here much more frequently 

 than is supposed; but it reaches us in first winter plumage, with white unspotted 

 underparts, when it bears so close a resemblance to the Common Sandpiper of the 

 Old World that ninety-nine men out of a hundred upon shooting one would 

 declare it to be of the British species, and not worth preserving. Until the 

 autumn of 1891, I was under the impression that the Spotted Sandpiper could 

 be readily distinguished from its Old World ally by having all the secondaries 

 uniformly barred. During the month of August I shot an example of a Sand- 

 piper in Tor Bay, which appeared to comply with these conditions, and I thought 

 we had got a genuine Spotted Sandpiper at last. I sent the bird to Seebohm, 

 and he very kindly compared it with a large series of both species ; but he 

 informed me, after careful examination, that he felt convinced this example was 

 a Common Sandpiper only. The character of the barred secondaries appears, 

 therefore, to be unreliable ; and, failing this, I know of no other by which Spotted 

 Sandpipers can be distinguished from Common Sandpipers in winter plumage, or 

 in that of birds of the year. The character of pale legs and feet (in the flesh), 

 I think, is common to both, and I do not attach much importance to the streaked 

 or unstreaked lower throat and breast, although I have given it as a diagnostic 

 character drowning men will clutch at straws! and bewildered ornithologists 

 are often very glad to seize even the most shady character, rather than be left 

 with none. I am, however, still disposed to regard my example as belonging to 

 the American species. It appears that Seebohm succeeded in finding out of 

 a large series one other specimen only, similar to mine, shot at Brighton, and 

 which I am inclined to refer also to T. macularius, which will then avert the 

 difficulty of the secondaries not being a constant character. This seems to me 

 the most logical treatment of the case, at least until more information is obtained 

 on the subject of specific distinction. (Conf. Ibis, 1892, p. 97.) I may add that 

 the Tor Bay example is now in the museum of the Torquay Natural History 

 Society. The Irish example above mentioned has certainly no better claim to be 

 regarded as a genuine Spotted Sandpiper, seeing that it was obtained in winter, 

 than the Tor Bay specimen, although it has been recorded by Howard Saunders 

 in the new edition of his Manual of British Birds. Indeed this specimen has 

 induced him to devote to the species a separate article, whilst the Tor Bay example 

 is completely ignored. Foreign : Nearctic region ; Northern Neotropical region in 

 winter. It breeds throughout the United States and British North America up 

 to about lat. 60 ; passes the Bermudas on migration ; winters in Mexico, the 

 West Indies, Central America, and the northern portions of South America. 



Allied forms. Totanus hypoleucus, the Old World representative, a British 

 species, and treated fully in the preceding chapter. 



