THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 503 



293. Pygmy Curlew [BOGENSCHNABLIGER STRANDLAUFER]. 



TRINGA SUBARQUATA, Temminck. 



Heligolandish : Koad Stennick = Bed Sandpiper. 



Tringa subarquata. Nauniann, viii. 408. 



Pygmy Curleio. Dresser, viii. 59. 



Becasseau cocorli. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 609, iv. 397. 



Though admitted to the list of resident European birds, the 

 Pygmy Curlew is of rarer occurrence in Heligoland than any other 

 species belonging to our continent. During the many years that I 

 have been busily collecting I have only once been able to obtain an 

 old bird in pure summer plumage, though Aeuckens has once or 

 twice had in his possession examples in the transitional stage of 

 colour, from the winter to the summer plumage. A few solitary 

 young birds of the year are shot every autumn ; these frequent by 

 preference the Upper Plateau of the island. Aeuckens asserts 

 that he has seen, almost annually in May, smah 1 flocks of these 

 birds migrating overhead at a great altitude, and in an easterly 

 direction. I must confess, however, that I have never met with an 

 instance of this. 



The egg is, up to the present, unknown ; nor have its breeding 

 stations, which are doubtless identical with those of T. islandica = 

 canutus, been hitherto reached, though the bird has been met with 

 on its spring passage to the north in the Taimyr Peninsula, the 

 islands of New Siberia, and other high latitudes. 



294. Dunlin [ALPEN-STRANDLAUFER]. 



TRINGA ALPINA, Linn. 



Heligolandish : Stennick = Sandpiper. 1 



Tringa alpina. Naumann, vii. 426. 



Dunlin. Dresser, viii. 21. 



Becasseau brunette. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 612, iv. 399. 



This species is richer in individuals than any other of its 

 European congeners, and is also the commonest and most numer- 

 ous representative of the genus in Heligoland. Old birds, in more 

 or less perfect summer plumage are, it is true, met with for the 

 most part as stragglers rather than in companies ; but even these 



1 Sandpiper is the English equivalent for the genus designated in German by the 

 name ' Strandlaufer,' the literal translation of which is really Shore-runner. 



