SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 123 



of experienced ornithologists. As is hereafter explained, they may easily 

 be detected by the relative amount of white on the secondary quills. It is 

 extremely probable that the example recorded by Edwards (Gleanings in 

 Nat. Hist. vi. p. 141) as having occurred in Essex in May 1743 was a 

 Common Sandpiper, as it was obtained in spring; but Bewick's Spotted 

 Sandpiper, " shot in the month of August on the bleak moors above 

 Bellingham, in Northumberland," is not only figured with the spots on the 

 back more regular than is usually the case with the Common Sandpiper, 

 but the secondaries are described as " tipped with white," whilst those of 

 the Common Sandpiper are said to be marked with white on the middle 

 of both webs, as well as tipped with white. 



Of the adult Spotted Sandpipers alleged to have been obtained in this 

 country, the evidence in support of the genuineness of the following occur- 

 rences remains unshaken. One shot near Whitby on the 29th of March 

 1849 (Sir W. Milner, 'Zoologist/ 1849, p. 2455); a second and third shot 

 by Edwin Lord, of Warrington, on the Mersey, below that town, in May 

 1863 (Ecroyd Smith, 'Notabilia of the Mersey District/ p. 51); a fourth 

 and fifth shot by Mr. Tee at Crumble Pond, near Eastbourne,' early in 

 October 1866 ; and a sixth and seventh left in the flesh in August 1867 at 

 the Museum of Aberdeen, and probably shot in the neighbourhood (Gray, 

 ' Birds of W. of Scotland/ p. 299). 



The Spotted Sandpiper has a very similar range in America to that of the 

 Common Sandpiper in the Old World. In the north it does not quite reach 

 the Arctic circle ; but it breeds throughout the United States of America, 

 migrating southwards in autumn to winter in Mexico, the West Indies 

 Central America, and the northern portion of the South- American conti- 

 nent. It visits the Bermudas in considerable numbers, some of which 

 remain during the winter, so that its accidental occurrence in our islands 

 might reasonably be expected. It has been said to have occurred on the 

 continent of Europe ; but the evidence in support of this statement is not 

 very satisfactory. 



The Spotted Sandpiper is so nearly allied to the Common Sandpiper 

 that Ridgway at one time did not admit the specific distinctness of the two 

 birds, and regarded the American form as a variety of the European one 

 but in his last work he reinstates the Spotted Sandpiper in its former 

 specific rank. The fact that the immature birds of both species very closely 

 resemble the adult of the Old- World species, and differ conspicuously from 

 that of the New-World species, points to the conclusion that the common 

 ancestors of both inhabited the Old World, and that the Spotted Sand- 

 pipers are the descendants of a colony of Common Sandpipers which 

 migrated or, rather, emigrated to Alaska from North-east Siberia within 

 comparatively recent ages, and have since become slightly modified in colour 

 to suit their present surroundings. 



