558 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



SHORT NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER AS A BRITISH BIRD. 

 ["ZOOLOGIST," A$ril, 1854.] 



As no further notice has been taken of the sandpiper described some 

 while ago in the "Zoologist" (" Zool." 3330), by Mr. Reid, nor 

 have the conjectures offered at the time been since confirmed, I am 

 induced, in the absence of a better account, to lay before the readers 

 of the "Zoologist" what information I have obtained on the subject 

 since I have been in Doncaster. His attention once called to the 

 "American Ornithology," Mr. Reid soon satisfied himself that his 

 bird could be no other than Bartram's Sandpiper, agreeing as it did in 

 the most minute particulars with Wilson's description ; and the very 

 remarkable character exhibited in its wedge-shaped tail leaves no 

 doubt as to the identity of the bird. It is the Tringa Bartramia 

 of Wilson, "Ann. Orn.," vol. ii., 353 ; Totanus Bartramius of 

 Temminck, "Man. d'Orn." ii., 650; and of Bonaparte, "Synop." 325; 

 and is well figured in Gould's " Birds of Europe." The circumstances 

 under which the present individual was found agree so far exactly with 

 what are said to be its habits in America ; and indeed Mr. Barnard, 

 the gentleman who sent the bird to be preserved, was particularly 

 surprised that it should have occurred " so far inland, sitting on a 

 bean-stubble, and in a place near to which there is no water." The 

 locality was near Warwick, not Warrington, and this unique specimen 

 I understand still remains in the possession of R. T. Barnard, Esq., 

 of Kinton Hall, near that city, to whom it was brought in the first 

 instance by the man who shot it. So many of the American Tringidae 

 have already been enrolled as British birds that the occurrence of one 

 more species cannot be looked upon with much surprise, while in the 

 case before us, the fact that Bartram's Sandpiper has for some time 

 been known as a straggler on this side of the Atlantic will, no doubt, 

 serve still further to justify its introduction into our Fauna. For this 

 very interesting novelty we are indebted to the discrimination of Mr. 

 Reid, who, when recording his description, felt confident his sandpiper 

 had not hitherto been recognised as a British bird. DONCASTER, 

 Feb. 15, 1854. 



