364 SCOLOPACID.E. 



the British Museum, and it is a rare straggler to Ceylon. 

 It is very abundant on the muddy delta of the Irawaddy ; 

 Tenasserim, the Andaman Islands, and the Philippines are 

 also visited by it, and as Eeinwardt procured it in Java, it 

 probably occurs in other parts of the Malay Archipelago. 

 Passing northwards, there seems to be an absence of con- 

 tinuity in the range of the Broad-billed Sandpiper as regards 

 Western Siberia, for Mr. Seebohm did not meet with it on 

 the Arctic portion of the Yenesei, nor did Dr. Finsch or 

 Dr. Theel in the Altai or on the Ob ; but its occurrence 

 on the eastern shores of Lake Baikal is substantiated by 

 Dybowski, and on the Sea of Okhotsk by Middendorff. 

 In Japan Messrs. Blakiston and Pryor obtained four spe- 

 cimens, one of which the Editor has examined, in Mr. 

 Seebohm's collection, and finds it identical with European 

 specimens ; and at Shanghai, and on the Island of Formosa, 

 the late Mr. Swinhoe obtained several examples. These 

 have been pronounced by Mr. H. E. Dresser to be specifically 

 distinct from the western form, and he has accordingly 

 separated the bird from Eastern Siberia and China under 

 the name of Limicola sibirica (P. Z. S. 1876, p. 674). In 

 winter plumage he admits that the two forms cannot with 

 certainty be distinguished, but in three eastern specimens 

 which, as he states, were all that he had in summer dress, 

 he found that the feathers on the crown and entire upper 

 parts were very broadly margined with bright rufous, giving 

 this colour extreme prominence, whereas in western birds 

 in breeding plumage the general coloration of the upper 

 parts is darker and the margins of the feathers are paler. 

 To Mr. Harting, Col. W. V. Legge, and the Editor, after 

 examination of this scanty series, the alleged differences do 

 not appear to warrant specific distinction ; and to the latter 

 the Chinese specimens, which were obtained in April, seem 

 to be birds of the previous year, assuming their first spring 

 plumage, but not the darker feathers of the fully adult stage. 

 A specimen from Bohol in the Philippines, submitted to 

 Mr. Dresser (P. Z. S. 1878, p. 712), is referred to L. plaiy- 

 rliyncha. 



