THE CURLEW SANDPIPER. J 33 



Family SCOL OP A C/Z>^. 



CURLEW SANDPIPER. 



Trin<ra subarquata, GuLDENSTADT. 



SINCE the Knot's egg was taken by our American cousins* (and was laid in 

 confinement in the Lilford aviaries), the Curlew Sandpiper has been the 

 only mysterious stranger left until last year (1897), when Mr. Popham has solved 

 the mystery by the discovery of the nest at the mouth of the Yenesei River. 



The name " Curlew," and its Latin equivalent " Subarquata," refer to a 

 characteristic of this bird, the comparatively long and decurved bill, visible to the 

 eye, assisted by a field-glass, at a considerable distance. 



The Curlew Sandpiper breeds in northern circumpolar regions, the exact limits 

 of its distribution being as yet unknown. When these have been more thoroughly 

 explored, the present species, the Sanderling, Knot, and other comparatively 

 common birds, of which the eggs are still extremely rare, will probably be found 

 breeding in considerable colonies of local distribution. The Curlew Sandpiper 

 winters in Africa, India, Indo-Malaya, and Australasia. Rare in North America 

 (which suggests that its breeding quarters will be found to lie north of Europe 

 and Asia), it has occurred once or twice in the Eastern States, and more commonly 

 in Alaska, and on the west coast. With us it is found chiefly as an autumn 

 migrant, a few old birds, in partial summer dress, appearing in mid- August, and 

 young birds (much the most numerous) about the end of the month, all leaving 

 generally in October. In Ireland a few individuals appear to remain till December. 

 On the vernal, or northward, migration, it is very much rarer with us, though, 

 curiously, is abundant in May in Southern Spain in full summer dress ; when it 

 does occur with us in spring, it may be any time between mid- March and the end 

 of June. It has not been known to occur in the Faeroes, Iceland, Spitzbergen, or 

 Greenland, though erroneously recorded from the third-named. On the Eastern 

 Asiatic coast, its occurrences are much like those on the Eastern European, except 

 that it is commoner in spring. 



Description of adult in summer ($ Reed's Island, Humber, May, 1886): bill 



* Dr. Sharpe states that "there is no authentic egg of the Knot in the United States Museum, at 

 Washington," ("B. B." Vol. Ill, p. 235). H.A.M. 



