518 RARE BRITISH BIRDS 



having the mantle, scapulars, and inner scapulars brown instead of black. The young in first 

 plumage is very like the adult female, but the feathers of the back and wings have buff margins, 

 and the crown and nape of the otherwise white head brown, and the white under parts have a 

 shade of grey on the fore-neck. Young clad in down of an isabelline colour above, with streaks 

 of black down the lower back and rump. [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. Breeds locally in the Mediterranean region, as well as throughout Africa 

 and Southern Asia. In Northern Africa it nests in Marocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt, and 

 in Europe commonly in South Spain and Portugal, the Camargue, Sicily, Greece, Dalinatia, the 

 Dobrogea, Turkey, Hungary, and South Russia (Kirghiz steppes and up to 49 on the Volga). 

 In Asia it breeds from Transcaspia, Asia Minor, Cyprus, and Palestine east to India, Ceylon, 

 Burma, and the upper Hoang-Ho valley. In the northern portions of its breeding range it is 

 migratory, European birds wintering in Africa and Asiatic birds in the southern portion of that 

 continent. As a casual visitor it has occurred in most of the countries of Central Europe 

 and on the Atlantic Isles, and fairly often in the British Isles, though less so of late years. 

 [F. c. u. J.] 



THE SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 1 



[ORDER : Charadriiformes. SUBORDER : Limicolce. FAMILY : Charadriidce. 



SUBFAMILY : Tringince] 



BROADBILLED SANDPIPER [Limicola platyrhijncha (Temminck). German, kleincr 

 Sumpfldufer; Italian, gambeccio frullino]. 



1. Description. Differs from the dunlin in having the bill broad, conspicuously flattened, 

 and terminating in a point which is slightly decurved. Total length about 7~5 in. [191 mm.]. 

 The adult in its nuptial plumage has the upper parts black with bright rufous edges to the 

 feathers, and tipped with white; a well-defined white eyebrow extending to the base of the 

 bill ; throat and under surface of the body white ; the fore-neck and chest thickly spotted with 

 black and tinged with rufous ; tail feathers brownish white, becoming white on the inner web ; 

 middle tail feathers dusky brown, margined at the extremity with rich buff; iris hazel; bill 

 dusky black ; legs and feet slaty black. After the autumn moult the feathers of the upper parts 

 are brownish grey without the rufous edges to the feathers, [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. In Scandinavia this species breeds in the high north and on the marshes 

 in the high fjeld south to the Dovre in Norway, and in Sweden occasionally south to Jemtland, 

 Vestergotland, and Oland, and regularly in Lapland ; also in Finnish Lapland, and, according to 

 Buturlin, probably in Russia near St. Petersburg, in the basin of the Ilek and near Kazan, while 

 eastward it may breed in the Turgai government, and even east of the Yenisei, but in East 

 Siberia is replaced by a lighter race, which ranges east to the Sea of Okhotsk and west probably 

 to Baikalia. On migration visits nearly all the European countries except the Iberian Pen- 

 insula, south to the Mediterranean and the coasts of North Africa, while in Asia it visits the 

 Red Sea, Mekran coast, India, Ceylon ; and apparently the eastern race passes through Japan, 

 China, Formosa, and the Malay Peninsula to Java, the Philippines, and the Moluccas. About 

 fifteen occurrences of the western form have been recorded from the British Isles. [F. c. R. J.] 



AMERICAN PECTORAL-SANDPIPER [Pelidna* maculdta maculdta (Vieillot) ; Erolia 

 maculata (Vieillot) ; Tringa maculdta (Vieillot)]. 



1. Description. Distinguished from the Siberian pectoral-sandpiper by the pectoral band 

 which is spotted and barred instead of streaked ; the less heavily marked flanks ; the white 

 under tail-coverts, and the rounded tips to the tail-feathers, [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



1 Vol. iii. p. 421. 2 By strict priority the name Pelidna should be superseded by Erolia. 



