OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 271 



Family CHARADRIIDyE. Genus LIMONITES. 



Subfamily 



AMERICAN STINT. 



LIMONITES MINUTILLA (Vieillot). 



Tringa minutilla, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxiv. p. 452 (1819) ; Dresser, B. Eur. 

 viii. p. 51, pi. 552, figs. 2, 3 (1871) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 396 (1883) ; 

 Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 213 (1885) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 149, 

 pi. 44 (1896) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt xxxv. (1897). 



Tringa subminuta minutilla, Vieill., Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non.-indig. Brit. B. 

 p. 270 (1894). 



Limonites minutilla (Vieill.) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 255 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 548 (1896). 



Geographical distribution British: The American Stint is a very 

 rare straggler on autumn migration to our area, but is one that is doubtless fre- 

 quently overlooked. The claim of this species to rank as " British " rests upon the 

 following occurrences : England : Cornwall (one example), October, 1853 ; Devon- 

 shire (two examples), September, 1869, and August, 1892. Foreign: Northern 

 Nearctic region ; Neotropical region in winter. It breeds in the Arctic regions 

 of America from Alaska to Labrador and Newfoundland, south to Nova Scotia. 

 It passes the United States, from California in the west to the Atlantic coast in 

 the east, on migration, occurring abnormally on the Bermudas, a few wintering 

 in the Southern States, but the majority in Mexico, the West Indies, Central 

 America, the Galapagos (doubtless abnormally), and the northern portions of 

 South America. 



Allied forms. Limonites damacensis, an inhabitant of Eastern Siberia, 

 south of the Arctic circle, from the valley of the Lena to the coasts of the Sea of 

 Okhotsk, Behring Island, and the islands off Alaska. It passes through the Baikal 

 region, the valley of the Amoor, and along the coasts of China and Japan on migra- 

 tion, and winters in the Malay Archipelago, North Australia, India, Ceylon, and 

 Burmah. The Old World representative of the American Stint only sub- 

 specifically distinct, and completely intergrading with its New World repre- 

 sentative. Typical examples differ from the American Stint in having a larger 

 foot (length of middle toe and claw '85 to '95 inch, instead of '8 to '85 inch). 

 L, minuta and L. ruficollis treated of in the preceding chapter. 



