CURLEW SANDPIPER. 



LlMICOLJt. 



403 



SCOLOPACIDM. 



TRINGA SUBARQUATA (Giildenstadt*). 



THE CURLEW SANDPIPER. 



Tringa subarquata, 



ONE of the earliest notices of the Curlew Sandpiper, or 

 Pigmy Curlew, as a British bird, occurs in Boy's 'History 

 of Sandwich,' in reference to a specimen shot in that neigh- 

 bourhood, and Pennant mentions a second example killed in 

 August, at Greenwich. This species was formerly considered 

 to be a rare visitor to this country, but it probably remained in 

 some instances undistinguished, when in its winter plumage, 

 from the Dunlin at the same season ; the beak, however, is 

 longer, rather more slender, as well as more curved ; the legs 

 longer and thinner, and the bare part above the joint of 

 greater extent: there is also a constant and marked difference 

 on the rump and in the upper tail-coverts, which in this bird 

 are invariably white, whereas in the Dunlin the feathers along 



* Scolopax subarquata, A. J. Griildenstadt, Nov. Comm. Petrop. xix. p. 471, 

 pi. xviii. (1775). 



