388 The Water-fowl Family 



through Japan and China to India and Burma in winter. A 

 single specimen was taken on the Choris Peninsula, Alaska, in 

 1849. 



Perhaps the rarest of our shore-birds, the 

 spoon-bill sandpiper has seldom been taken, and 

 little is known of its habits. It is most com- 

 mon, probably, on the Arctic Coast of Asia, and 

 may follow the coast of China to India. Nelson 

 secured a specimen of this bird in summer plu- 

 mage, in 1 88 1, at Plover Bay, Siberia. It was 

 standing on the edge of a small pool, on a spit 

 near the harbor entrance. A specimen in my own 

 collection bears a Japanese label, and I have seen 

 the bird on Japanese price-lists. 



According to Nelson, Nordenskjold found this 

 species so common at Tapkan, on the Arctic Coast 

 of Siberia, in June, that they were served twice 

 on the gun-room table of his ship. A number of 

 specimens have been collected in India in winter, 

 and in spring and fall in China and Japan. 

 Little is known of this bird's habits, and its eggs 

 have never been taken. 



SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER 



(Ereunetes pusillus) 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage Upper surface, light 

 gray-brown, occasionally tinged with pale cinnamon ; head and 

 dorsal region, heavily spotted with black; wing-coverts, pale 

 brown, edged with white; primaries, dark brown, edged with 

 black ; rump, black ; upper tail-coverts, blackish brown ; a dusky 

 loral stripe ; superciliary stripe and throat, pure white ; breast, 



