311 
SUPPOSED OCCURRENCES OF 
THE SPOTTED SANDPIPER IN YORKSHIRE. 
JOHN HENRY GURNEY, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., 
Keswick Hall, Norwich. 
AT p. 327 of ‘The Naturalist,’ Lieut.-Col. B. B. Haworth-Booth 
records a Spotted Sandpiper (Zvringoides macularius) shot at 
Rowlstone, in Holderness, by one of his sons. From a private 
communication I learn that the specimen was identified from the 
drawing in Bewick’s ‘British Birds,’ which it exactly resembles. 
Now, this drawing seems to have been the cause of misapprehension 
Several times, representing, as it evidently does, the common British 
species, Zotanus hypoleucus (L.), and not the American one. When 
the 1847 edition of Bewick was in the press, the late Mr. John 
Hancock tried to get the matter put right, but Bewick’s relatives 
were timid, and would only allow the following note to be added :— 
‘This bird is believed by some to be the Common Sandpiper.’ 
As likely as not, Bewick’s wrongly-named woodcut was used for 
identifying another Spotted Sandpiper, entered as such in ‘The 
Naturalist,’ 1878-9, p. 80, as having been shot near Heslington, on 
the authority of Mr. Helstrip, and exhibited at the York Naturalists’ 
Society’s meeting as a veritable American visitor ; some correspondent 
may have seen the bird and remember its identity. 
It has indeed been suggested that Bewick’s woodcut may possibly 
represent the young of the American 7. macularius, which is without 
spots, but the markings on the back show that Bewick’s cut is from 
an adult, in which stage the breast is spotted. This, I think, forbids 
the supposition that it could have been anything but an English 
TZ. hypoleucus (shot, as I learnt from Mr. Hancock, by Mr. John 
Wingate near Bellingham). As this was ninety years ago it has 
probably by this time passed out of existence, but, from what 
Mr. Hancock and Mr. R. Howse tell me, it most likely at one time 
was to have been found in Colonel Coulson’s collection at Blenkinsop 
Hall, near Haltwhistle, dispersed by auction many years since, which 
collection also contained a Great Bustard, locally shot. 
There are thirty-one supposed occurrences of the Spotted Sand- 
Piper in the British Isles, and there are very few birds around which 
so much misapprehension has clustered. A good many of them 
are undoubtedly cases of mistaken identity, while some are foreign 
skins wilfully or unintentionally palmed off as British-killed, and 
mitted into collections where they would otherwise not have found 
a place. TZvfanus macularius was allowed to retain its place as a 
_ British bird in the 4th ed. of ‘Yarrell’ by Mr. Howard Saunders, 
Nov. 1895, 
