Birds of Celebes: Charadriidae. 769 



early as July. The bird ^vlucll Taczanowski (g 1) describes as young, and that of 

 the allied H. incanns which Mr. S. B. Wilson figures [a 8, hinder fig.), appear to 

 us to relate to the winter dress of the species, whether old or young. 



Eggs. Unknown. 



Distribution. N. E. and E. Siberia (Middendorff , Dybowski, etc. g 1); Baikal (Eadde 

 b 5); Bering Id. (Stejneger 1); Sakhalien (Nikolski g 1); Kurile Is., Japan, 

 Loochoo Is., Bonin Islands (Seebohm d 15]; China (David d 4), Formosa (Swinhoe 

 tt 2); Philipi)ines (Challenger Exp., Everett, etc. d 5, d 6, d 12, d 14); Borneo 

 (S. Miiller, etc. d 5); Talaut Is. — Kabruang (Nat. Coll.); Great Sangi (Meyer 

 d 9, Bruijn d 3, Nat. Coll.), Siao (Meyer d 9, Nat. ColL); Celebes — Manado 

 tua and Mantehage (Nat. Coll.), Minahassa (Meyer b 4, etc.), Gorontalo Distr. 

 (Riedel d 11), Luwu (Weber a 9); Moluccas and Papuasia (Salvadori d 7, 4); 

 Australia (Ramsay d 13). 



So far as can as yet be judged this Sandpiper inhabits the countries washed 

 by the West Pacific and its seas, breeding in some unknown quarters in the 

 high north and migrating south in winter, probably as far as Australia. Until 

 1885 it was believed to have a much wider range, to wander all over the islands 

 of the Pacific as far as New Zealand and down the west coast of N. America from 

 Alaska to California, in addition to the territories enumerated; but Stejneger 

 has shown that the East Pacific birds belong to a different species H. incanus, 

 having the nasal groove about V:, as long as the exposed culmen (instead of 

 about V2 as in hrevipes), while the middle of the abdomen and the under tail- 

 coverts, like the other under-parts, are uniformly barred with blackish grey in 

 the breeding dress (the under tail-coverts and abdomen being white and un- 

 barred in hrevipes), the upper tail-coverts of incanus are only tipped, not barred, 

 with white, and its size is somewhat larger. Seebohm (f 1) also points out 

 that the tarsus of incanus is reticulated at the back, of hrevipes scutellated. 

 Owing to the former confusion of the two species it is impossible to define 

 their geographical ranges with exactitude: it is necessary that the whole of the 

 material should be looked through again. It is probable, for instance, that 

 H. hrevipes occurs in some of the western parts of Polynesia, and both are known 

 to range to Bering Island and the Bonin Islands. Dr. Stejneger considers the 

 two forms perfectly distinct, and we find it easy to separate the series in the 

 Dresden Museum (those from the Celebesian area, Burn, and Timor being 

 hrevipes, one from Samoa incanus), but Seebohm was of opinion that they 

 intergi'ade. 



The genus Heteractitis, represented only by these two forms, is intermediate 

 between Actitis and Totanus, differing from the former by its long primaries, 

 the distance from the carpus to the tips of the outer secondaries being less 

 than half the length of the wing (in Actitis it is more than half), by its bill, 

 which is much stronger and closely similar to Totanus, and by the absence of 

 the white bar across the primaries; from Totanus it differs principally by its 

 short tarsus, which is shorter than the bill and only about V5 the length of 



Meyer & Wi cl es wo r th, Birds of Celebes (Dec. lith ISDT). 97 



