OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 247 



Family CHARADRIIDyE. Genus TKINGA. 



Subfamily SGOLOPACINM. 



CURLEW SANDPIPER. 



TEINGA SUBAEQUATA (Giildenstadt) . 

 PLATE XXVIII. 



Scolopax subarquata, Guldenst., Nov. Comm. Petrop. xix. p. 471 (1775). 



Tringa subarquata (Guldenst.), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 215 (1852) ; Dresser, B. Bur. 

 viii. p. 59, pi. 553 (1878) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4 iii. p. 403 (1883) ; Seebohm, 

 Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 180 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxv. (1893) ; Dixon, 

 Nests and Eggs non-indig. Brit. B. Appendix i. p. 337 (1894) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. 

 Eggs, Brit. B. p. 144 (1896). 



Ancylochilus subarcuatus (Guldenst.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 240 (1896); 

 (spdt subarquatm), Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 586 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: The Curlew Sandpiper is a 

 fairly common visitor on spring and autumn migration to our islands, most 

 frequent during the latter season, and commonest at all times on the lower-lying 

 coasts, notably those of the eastern counties of England south of the Humber, 

 and westwards to Devon and Cornwall. It is rarer on the western coast line of 

 Great Britain than the eastern, and accidental only in the Orkneys and Shetland. 

 It is occasionally met with inland. In Ireland it is of regular occurrence in 

 autumn, a few remaining on the southern coasts during the greater part of the 

 winter. Foreign: Eastern half of the Circumpolar region in summer; Ethiopian, 

 Oriental, and Australian regions in winter ; Palaearctic region principally on 

 migration. The breeding grounds of the Curlew Sandpiper are almost entirely 

 unknown, and are probably chiefly situated on undiscovered land north of Franz 

 Joseph Land and the Liakoff Islands. Indeed, it is not improbable that the 

 bird may breed on these islands, as it was observed very late in summer by 

 Seebohm both in the valleys of the Petchora and the Yenisei, in which latter 

 valley its only known nesting places occur; whilst it has been obtained in 

 summer at Archangel and on the Taimur Peninsula, and has been observed on 

 migration in the Lena delta, near Behring Strait by the Vega Expedition, and 

 at Point Barrow, in Alaska. It passes along the coasts of Europe, and crosses 

 the interior of the continents of Europe and Asia, as well as the coasts of China 

 and Japan on migration. Those which migrate across Europe winter in Africa, 



