LITTLE-STINT, CURLEW-SANDPIPER, ETC. 469 



LITTLE-STINT, CURLEW-SANDPIPER, AND 



PURPLE- SAND PIPER 



[W. FARREN] 



The above three species do not breed in our isles. The purple- 

 sandpiper has, it is true, been thought to nest in the Shetlands and 

 Hebrides and also in the Fame Islands, but there is no authenticated 

 record of its having done so. Its nearest nesting-place is in the 

 Faeroes. The little-stint hardly breeds south of the Arctic Circle. 

 The nesting-places of the curlew-sandpiper remained a mystery up to 

 comparatively recent years. They are now known to breed in various 

 localities north of the Arctic Circle. 1 



The little-stint and curlew-sandpiper have not been known to 

 stay with us through the winter, 2 and compared with other allied birds 

 of passage for instance the knot, to be described in the next 

 chapter the numbers of them which visit us on migration are small, 

 due no doubt to their relative distribution in the breeding season. 

 These two species breed more exclusively in the east, the former from 

 Northern Norway to the Taimyr Peninsula, while the latter is 

 not known to breed west of the Yenisei river. It is of rare occur- 

 rence in America, so that its breeding-range is probably limited to 

 Arctic regions to the north of Asia. The chief migration routes of 

 both species lie, as might therefore be expected, to the east of the 

 British Isles, and the few that visit us on passage in spring and autumn 

 represent the fringe of a route passing through Europe by way of the 

 valleys of the Rhone and Rhine. Both species are more numerous 

 with us on the autumn than the spring passage, which is the case also 

 with other birds of passage, more especially those whose summer 



1 See " Classified Notes." 



2 There is, however, a record of five or six little-stints which frequented a damp meadow 

 near Malvern in February 1912, one of which was shot on February 6th. British Birds (maga- 

 zine), v. p. 308. 



VOL. III. 3 P 



