PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 433 



almost any small invertebrate animal ; seaweed. In examined stomachs, Professor 

 Patten found abundance of small Gastropod molluscs with pointed spiral shells 

 up to 6 mm. (Aquatic Birds, p. 310). On their arrival in their Arctic breeding- 

 places they feed largely on vegetable matter. In Grinnell Land Colonel Feilden 

 observed them feeding on the buds of Saxifraga oppositifolia (Ibis, 1877, p. 40) ; 

 and in N.E. Greenland Herr Manniche states that they eat the seeds of Carex and 

 Luzula, the tufts of which appear above the snow; and he adds that they feed 

 more on plants than any of their relatives (Terrestrial Mammals and Birds of N.E. 

 Greenland, p. 131). Young birds fledged were seen feeding on sandhoppers 

 (Gammarus), and the stomach contents of some birds killed during summer con- 

 sisted mainly of green algae (Ibid., p. 135). Mr. Adamson, quoted in the fourth 

 edition of Yarrell, found " maggots " in the stomachs of birds received from the 

 Fens. A bird killed at Discovery Bay contained two larvae of Dasychera groen- 

 landica a Bombycid moth one bee, and pieces of an alga (Yarrell, British Birds, 

 iii. p. 418). The young are accompanied and aided by both parents according 

 to Manniche chiefly by the female in their search for food, which consists of 

 insects and their larvae, [w. r.] 



SANDERLING \Cdlidris leucophdea (Pallas) ; Cdlidris arendria (Linnaeus). 

 Oxbird. French, sanderling des sables ; German, Ufer-Sanderling ; Italian, 

 piovanello tridattild]. 



I. Description. The sanderling may be distinguished at all ages by the 

 absence of the hind-toe and the white bar across the wing. The sexes are alike, 

 and there is a distinct seasonal change of coloration. (PL 124.) Length 8 in. 

 [203 '20 mm.]. In the nuptial dress, head, neck, and mantle are of a pale mahogany- 

 red, more or less heavily striated with black ; on the interscapulars and scapulars, 

 however, these striations expand, leaving only an irregular margin of red surrounding 

 the feathers. Intermixed with the feathers of the mantle are many others having 

 white instead of red margins, thus imparting a hoary appearance to the plumage. 

 The hinder scapulars are heavily barred with alternate bands of black, red, and 

 white : the rump is mottled with red, black, and white ; and the upper tail-coverts 

 are black tipped with dark red. The marginal wing-coverts are black, the outer- 

 most minor coverts ash-brown, the inner black with broad red margins. The long 

 inner secondaries are ash-brown margined with white, but some have red margins. 

 The major coverts are ash-brown with broad white tips. The innermost primaries 



