CRUISE OF STEAMER (;ORWIX IX TOE ARCTIC OCEAX. 87 



EURINORHYNCHUS PYGRANUS (?) 



((•7.) The Spoonbilled Sand Piper. 



This peculiarly marked bird has recently had several very interesting additions made to its 

 known history by the observations made by Xordenskiold in the spring of 1870, by Dr. IJean in 

 the summer of 1880, and myself in 1881. Ou the northeast coa.st of Siberia Xordenskiold records 

 this bird as occurring in such numbers that ou two occasions in spring it was served upon 

 their mess table on board the Vega while they were lying frozen in at their winter quarters. It 

 arrived in spring at Tapkan, with the first bare spots, early in June, and disappeared in .July. To 

 the westward, in the same vicinity, during the summer of 1881, I saw several of these birds, and 

 at Plover Bay, on tlie Bering Sea shore of the same coast, secured a tine adult fenuile in breeding 

 phunage, t^ken on June -G. Xothing peculiar was observed in its habits, and I api)roached the 

 bird without difficulty or its showing the slightest concern as it stood ou the flat at that place. 

 The bird was first seeu feeding in the shallow water at the edge of a pool, and then stood with its 

 head drawn back and without paying the slightest attention to me until it was shot. It is a hand- 

 somely plumaged^species,^is is shown in the accompanying plate by Mr. Ridgway. There is a 

 siugle known instance of its occurrence ou the American coast, aiul this was at Hotham Inlet, 

 where a specimen was secured by the English ship Plover during the summer of 1S49. The record 

 of this specimen is in the proceedings of the London Zoological Society for 1871, page 110, where 

 we learn that this specimen taken on Choris Peninsula, Hotham Inlet, was lately presented to the 

 Oxford Museum, among other birds in the collection of Sir John Barrow. 



In the Ibis for 1875, Mr. Swiuholm records a specimen killed at Ilakodadi, Japan, in September, 

 and it is wellknowu as a winter resident in the south of Asia, its summer home beiug appareutly, 

 from the records we now ])ossess, the northeastern Arctic shores of Asia. There have been 

 various records of the bird in Europe, and especially in Fr.ince. Bat Mr. Harting doubts their 

 authenticity, and says: "M. Jules Verreaux has ri'cently informed me that no specimen of Eury- 

 norhynchus ever existed in the Paris Museum, and that the bird to which liessiiig refers under the 

 head of Eurynorhynchus Griacui, and a s[)ecim('u under Erolia caria, Vieillot, is nothing less than a 

 Trlnga with the hirul toL's cut oft' and bill remodeled with the aid of some warm water." 



The proceedings testified to the rarity of this species in French Museums, and the manner 

 in which an artificial evolution may be encompassed. Mr. Harting continues by stating tluit nothing 

 is known of its nesting, and he refers to the unexplored region of Northeastern Asia as the place 

 likely to afford light on this point as well as upon a number of other little known species, and his 

 surmise has proved correct in this instance at least. A passable figure of this bird i.'i breeding 

 plumage, taken from the specimen secured on the Choris Peninsula by the Plover, is to be found 

 in the Ibis for 1869. Up to October of this year twenty-four specimens were known to Mr. Harting, 

 of which twenty-three were recorded from Southern India, and these were doubtless all in winter 

 plumage. 



The description of the specimen secured by me is as follows: Crown feathers with blackish 

 centres edged with rusty reddish approaching- chestnut. Back of neck with the dark centres 

 becoming much fainter and the borders rufous, changing to butty reddish, which, in addition to 

 edging the feathers, appears to wash their surface and the dark central portions. The back and 

 scapulars have well marked black centres edged with rufous butty and grayish intermixed. The 

 tertials have dark browuish centres edged with grayish and russet. Wing coverts light brown 

 edged with gray. The secondaries largely white, and an imperfect wing-bar formed by the white 

 tips to the secondary coverts. Quills grayish brown approaching black at the tips. The chin is 

 whitish, washed with a jjale shade of rufous, this latter shade becoming blight o\er the sides of 

 the head and entire lower surface of neck, reaching the upper portion of the breast. The forehead 

 and around the base of bill washed with grayish over the rufous bases of feathers. The breast is 

 rich butty, changing to white on the posterior half of breast an<l entire abdomen. A scattered 

 baud of dark opaque shaft spots cross the breast, and extend back on the sides which are other- 

 wise white. The tail is dark ashy brown; bill, foot, and tarsus black. The wing measures .3.95 

 inches; the tail, a])])roximately, l.."iO inches. This member was injured by shot to such an extent 



