CHARADRIIDJE CALIDRIS 411 



(1877) ; Sharpe, ed. La-yard' sB. S. Afr. p. 684 (1884) ; id. 



xxiv, p. 526 (1896) ; Shelley, B. Afr.i, p. 191 (1896) ; W. L. 



Ibis, 1899, p. 114[Inhambane] ; Reichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 226 (1900) ; 



Slwrtridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 203. 



Description. Adult in non-breeding plumage. General colour 

 above pale ashy-grey, with lighter edges and dark shaft-stripes to 

 most of the feathers ; primaries blackish, paler towards the base of 

 the inner web and with white shafts, inner secondaries chiefly 

 white ; central feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts like the 

 back, lateral feathers white ; -central tail-feathers ashy-brown, 

 margined with white, lateral ones rather paler, all with white 

 shafts ; forehead, lores, sides of the face and underparts throughout 

 white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white, the edge of the 

 wing slightly mottled with brown ; hind toe entirely absent. 



Iris, bill and legs black. 



Length 7'75 ; wing 4-6; tail 2-2; culmen -90; tarsus -93. 



In the breeding plumage the upper surface is cinnamon-rufous 

 mottled with black centres to the feathers, which have ashy edges ; 

 sides of the face, throat and breast deep cinnamon-rufous mottled 

 with black centres, rest of the under surface white. 



Birds on arrival in South Africa in September have the upper 

 surface considerably mottled with black and sometimes with chest- 

 nut as well; in one example in the South African Museum (St. 

 John's Eiver, September 2) there are traces of the cinnamon on the 

 throat and foreneck, while the breast is mottled with brown. The 

 summer plumage is also beginning to be assumed before the birds 

 leave in May. 



Distribution. The Sanderling breeds very far north along the 

 shores of the Arctic Ocean, and eggs have hitherto been only 

 obtained in Grinnel Land, Greenland and Iceland. It passes 

 southwards along the coasts or across the northern continents on 

 migration, and winters in all the southern continents South 

 America, South Asia, Africa and Australia, besides occurring in 

 most of the islands of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans as 

 a wanderer. 



In South Africa the Sanderling is abundant in the southern 

 summer months along the coast, but does not appear to have 

 been met with inland. 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony Port 

 Nolloth, December (S. A. Mus.), Hondeklip Bay, September (Stark), 

 Cape division, July, October (S. A. Mus.), Port Elizabeth and East 



