426 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



form ranges to South-east Asia, the Malay Archipelago, and even Australia. 

 [F. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. A bird of passage, occurring in small numbers on most 

 parts of the British coasts, but chiefly on the east of England, and very rarely 

 on the west of Ireland. The autumn passage lasts from mid-August through 

 September, after which very few birds may be met with : the spring passage, in 

 May and June, is not well marked. " On the whole, the British Isles appear to lie 

 on the outskirts of the chief line of flight pursued by this somewhat eastern species " 

 (cf. Saunders, III. Man. B. B., 2nd ed., 1899, p. 585). This may in part account 

 for the very varying numbers of little-stints that visit us from season to season : 

 while "on the spring migration the route followed by little-stints appears to lie 

 wholly outside the British Isles, and their occurrence at this season is quite 

 exceptional" (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1907, p. 461). There is also " some ground 

 for believing that sixty years or so ago it occurred in larger numbers than it has 

 done recently " : and a good authority has noted that little-stints and curlew- 

 sandpipers, although similar in their times of passage, are never both common in 

 the same season (cf. Ticehurst, loc. cit.). Gregarious ; seldom seen in large parties 

 in this country, but often with dunlins and others. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Does not breed in the British Isles. [F. c. B. j.] 



5. Food. The smaller thin-skinned crustaceans, and tiny crabs, worms, 

 molluscs, and the flies and their larvse that breed in decaying seaweed. See- 

 bohm said that on the Petschora they lived on mosquitoes and their larvse, but 

 the Rev. H. H. Slater found none in the birds he dissected at Kolguev, although, 

 as in most Arctic countries, mosquitoes are a pest there. In one stomach he 

 examined he found one crane-fly, four small beetles, one caddis-fly, and a number 

 of small white larvse (British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 129). In the 

 stomachs of birds shot on migration in Christiania Prof. Collett found seeds 

 of an aquatic plant (Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 394). The young are accom- 

 panied and aided in their search for food by both parents. Their food consists 

 of insects and their larvse. [w. F.] 



CURLEW-SANDPIPER [Pelidna ferruginea (Briinnich) ; Tringa subar- 

 qudta (Guldenstadt). Pygmy-curlew. French, becasseau cocorli; German, 

 bogenschndbliger Strandldufer ; Italian, piovanello]. 



I. Description. The curlew-sandpiper may always be distinguished by the 

 long, slightly decurved beak, and the white, black-barred upper tail-coverts. The 



