TEMMINCK'S STINT. 217 



TRINGA TEMMINCKI. 



TEMMINCK'S STINT. 



(PLATE 31.) 



Tringa temminckii, Leisler, Nachtr. Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. ii. p. 78 (1812) ; et 

 auctortun plurimonun Temminck, Naumann, Jerdon, Swinhoe, Dresser, 

 Sounders, &c. 



Pelidna temminckii (Leisl.), Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 979. 



Leimonites temminckii (Leisl.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 37 (1829). 



Schaeuiclus temminckii (Leisl.), Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 106 (1844). 



Actodrornas temminckii (Leisl.), Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 324 (1874). 



Temminck's Stint is a regular but by no means common visitor to the 

 east and south coasts of England on spring and autumn migration. In the 

 former season it passes through in May, and in the latter returns in 

 September, occasionally lingering as late as November. Gray says that it 

 has once occurred in Scotland, in Caithness, and Thompson records a 

 single example from Ireland ; it has also been occasionally obtained in a 

 few inland localities in England. 



Temminck/s Stint is essentially an Arctic bird, breeding in the Old- 

 World portion of the Circumpolar Region on the tundras above the limit of 

 forest-growth, and in similar localities on the banks of the great rivers as 

 far south as lat. 65 on the shores of the White Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia, 

 and as far south as lat. 55 on the shores of the Sea of Ochotsk .It is also 

 recorded as breeding above the limit of forest-growth on the Pamir and 

 the mountains of Dauria; but the evidence in support of these statements 

 is very unsatisfactory. It has not been recorded from Kamtschatka, nor 

 has it ever been observed in Japan ; but it was obtained by the ' Vega ' 

 expedition in Tchuski Land. On migration it passes not only along the 

 coasts of Europe and China, but also along most of the inland lines of 

 migration, to its winter-quarters in the basin of the Mediterranean and 

 North Africa, India and Ceylon, Burma, South China, Borneo and 

 probably other islands of the Malay archipelago. Temmincfs Stint has 

 no very near ally. Though it somewhat resembles the Little Stint and its 

 allies in winter plumage, it may at once be distinguished from any of them 

 by the colour of the tail-feathers. 



Although Temminck's Stint breeds further south and further west than 

 the Little Stint, it is, curiously enough, much less common on our shores 

 than the latter species. The explanation probably is that it is much less 

 exclusively a marine bird than its more showy ally. Although it is often 

 seen on the sandy shores of large rivers and lakes, it prefers mud-flats to 



