SPOTTED SANDPIPEK 331 



SPOTTED SANDPIPER. Totanus macularius (Linnaeus). 



Coloured Figures. Gould, * Birds of Great Britain,' vol. iv, 

 pi. 59 ; Dresser, ' Birds of Europe,' vol. ix, pi. 713. 



Until quite recently this New-World species could not 

 be claimed with certainty as a visitor to the British Isles. 

 Only one well-authenticated specimen has been procured, 

 and that in Ireland. Concerning this highly interesting 

 addition to the British-List of American Sandpipers, it 

 is stated in the ' Bulletin ' of the British Ornithologists' 

 Club, No. LX., that at their meeting on February 15th, 

 1899, "Mr. F. Curtis exhibited a specimen of the Spotted 

 Sandpiper, which had been shot on the 2nd of February, at 

 Finnea, co. Longford, by Mr. Frank Eoberts. The bird, 

 which proved to be a female, was very tame, and was 

 feeding at the time in a meadow much trodden by cattle 

 by the side of the River Finnea, within a short distance 

 of the village." 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Resembles the adult 

 male nuptial plumage of the Common Sandpiper, but 

 the back and wings are much more strongly barred 

 with blackish-brown, while the throat and breast are thickly 

 spotted with black ; there is less white on the inner 

 secondaries than in the Common Sandpiper. 



Adult female nuptial. Similar to the male plumage. 



Adult winter, male and female. The bronze tint of the 

 back and wings, in the nuptial plumage, is replaced to a 

 large extent by an olive-brown shade ; greater part of 

 breast and abdomen, pure white ; sides of the upper breast 

 and lower neck, ashy-brown. 



Immature, male and female. Resembles the immature 

 and winter plumages of the Common Sandpiper, and 

 showing more olive-brown shading than in the adults ; 

 the back and wings are barred transversely with reddish- 

 brown and brownish-black ; black spots on the breast and 

 throat, absent. 



The immature of this species has 1 "the broad sub- 

 terminal band continuous throughout the secondaries, 



1 E. Bowdler Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv., p. 471. 



