SANDPIPER. GRALLATORES. TOTANUS. 87 



already separated from it, having been described by NILSON 

 in his Ornithologia Suecica as Glottis chloropus, and by STE- 

 PHENS, in the 12th volume of SHAW'S Zoology, as Limosa 

 glottis. The only differing point, however, is in the form of 

 the bill, which is rather stronger, and bent upwards from 

 the middle to the point, thus leading to and beautifully con- 

 necting the present genus with the genera Limosa and Re- 

 curvirostra. It is a scarce bird in Britain, and generally Periodical 

 only to be met with about the periods of its vernal and au- visltant 

 tumnal migrations, though I am inclined to think that a few 

 may breed upon the edges of the Scottish lakes, as Sir WIL- 

 LIAM JARDINE and myself met with the young upon Loch 

 Awe in July; and I have an adult specimen that was shot in 

 Scotland in the month of May. Upon the Continent, it is 

 rather common during winter in some parts of Holland, and 

 also upon the shores of the Swiss lakes, and on the larger 

 rivers of Germany ; but it retires in the summer to more 

 northern countries to breed. Its geographical distribution 

 seems to be of wide extent in the ancient world, as the spe- 

 cimens I have received from different parts of India are pre- 

 cisely similar to our own. It has also been mentioned by 

 some authors as occurring in America ; but this does not ap- 

 pear to be the case, and the mistake has probably arisen 

 from confounding some nearly allied species with it. It is 

 seldom found on the sea-coast, but is the constant inhabitant 

 of the margins of rivers, and the shores of pools and lakes in 

 the interior of the countries it frequents, feeding upon the 

 fry of fish, testaceous mollusca, aquatic worms, and insects. Food. 

 We have no authentic account of its nidification. MONTAGU 

 mentions an egg that he received from the fens, as belonging 

 to this bird, and describes it as rather less than that of a 

 Lapwing, but very similar in shape and colour. This, how- 

 ever, may have been an egg of one of the Godwits, birds of 

 nearly the same size, and which have been ascertained to 

 breed in the fens of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. 



