VOL. vm.] NOTES ON CURLEW-SANDPIPER. 181 



Except in size, they resemble the chicks of the Little 

 Stint, both in the colouring of the down and. of the 

 legs and bill. 



In 1897, Mr. H. L. Popham shot the female at the nest, 

 and it may be perhaps worth mentioning that the skins 

 I obtained are all those of female birds. 



As soon as the young are hatched, the Curlew- 

 Sandpipers leave the dry hilly slopes and go down to 

 the flat sphagnum bogs that lie between the ridges 

 of the tundra. This early migration into the swamps 

 is also very characteristic of the Asiatic Golden Plover 

 [Charadrius fulvus) which nests abundantly in similar 

 situations, and as soon as both birds reach the marshes 

 they begin to congregate into flocks. On August 1st I 

 visited such a marsh about twelve miles from Golchika. 

 It was only about a quarter of a mile square and con- 

 tained as many as six pairs of Curlew-Sandpipers, and 

 the same number of Asiatic Golden Plover. I shot 

 a young Curlew-Sandpiper in first plumage there. There 

 was a certain amount of association between the old 

 birds of both species. A couple of each would wheel 

 round me and then perch on a tussock just out of gun- 

 shot. Then, just as I was coming within range, they 

 would spring up and dash, calling, overhead and again 

 pitch side by side in another place. Sometimes a single 

 Sandpiper would join a party of Golden Plover and 

 skim liither and thither over the tundra, but neither 

 Plover nor Sandpipers ever flocked in this manner with 

 the Little Stints, which were also common on this sort 

 of ground. There is no doubt that the young birds 

 are not hatched in these wet places, but are brought 

 to them afterwards. On July 15th, for instance, I 

 carefully quartered one small bog while looking for 

 Little Stints' nests and there was not a Curlew-Sandpiper 

 to be seen. A week later, two birds appeared in the 

 bog, and judging by their behaviour, they evidently 

 had yoimg ones close by. I do not know why both 

 Curlew-Sandpipers and Asiatic Golden Plover move 



