274 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Habits. The British Islands are evidently situated on the extreme outer 

 fringe of the spring and autumn migration of Temminck's Stint. This is probably 

 because the bird's line of flight is more inland, not so maritime as that of the 

 Little Stint, and taken down the great river valleys which extend almost due 

 north and south between the tundras where it breeds and the countries where it 

 winters. The few individuals that do stray so far to the westward as our coasts 

 usually make their appearance in May and September, and the great majority of 

 the birds reach their Arctic haunts during the last week of May in Europe and 

 the first week of June in Siberia. It is much more addicted to inland lakes and 

 rivers than to the coast, and always prefers a muddy shore to a sandy one. 

 During passage and in its winter quarters Temminck's Stint is generally met with 

 in flocks, but occasionally in scattered pairs or alone, and odd birds are frequently 

 met with in the gatherings of other Waders. Its habits and movements on the 

 mud-flats do not differ in any important respect from those of its congeners. Its 

 flight is rapid and the small bunches of birds frequently gyrate in the air after 

 being disturbed from their feeding places, each movement being performed with 

 such precision that a common impulse seems to control the entire number of 

 individuals. The food of Temminck's Stint is composed principally of insects 

 and their larvae, worms, and various small marine animals ; particles of vegetable 

 matter have been noticed in the stomach of this bird. Its call-note is a shrill 

 ptirr, very different from the whit of the Little Stint. 



Nidification. The breeding season of Temminck's Stint is in June. 

 Wolley was the first naturalist to furnish detailed information of the nest and 

 eggs of this species. He found it breeding sparingly in the marshes to the north 

 of the Bothnian Gulf. Although several nests may be found quite close together, 

 it is said that Temminck's Stint is not gregarious at the breeding grounds, keep- 

 ing in pairs during that period. During the pairing season this Stint frequently 

 perches on the small trees in its haunts, or stands on a post or fence, vibrating its 

 wings and trilling lustily. This musical trill, however, is generally uttered whilst 

 Temminck's Stint is wheeling round and round or hovering and floating in the air, 

 although it is sometimes heard as the bird runs along the ground with uplifted 

 wings. The nest is usually made near to water, often on low islands which are 

 clothed with willows and long grass at the delta of a river. It is merely a hollow 

 amongst the sedge, rushes, or grass, scantily lined with dry grass and withered 

 leaves. The eggs are four in number, ranging from pale buff to pale olive in 

 ground-colour, spotted and blotched with reddish-brown and dark brown, and 

 with underlying markings of paler brown and grey. On some eggs a few dark, 

 nearly black, streaks occur. They are pyriform in shape, and measure on an 

 average I'l inch in length by '85 inch in breadth. When its breeding grounds 

 are invaded Temminck's Stint becomes exceedingly demonstrative and noisy, and 

 often betrays the whereabouts of its nest by careering wildly about above it. 



