838 TEREKIA CINEREA. 



Bernstein procured it in the islands of Morotai and Halmahera. It wanders south to Australia, where 

 Mr. Ramsay records it from the Wide-Bay district and from New South Wales; but, as in the case of 

 Totanus glottis, it is omitted in his "Distribution" list from Tasmania, where it was procured by Minis. Labil- 

 lardiere [Sharpe fy Dresser). Gould obtained a specimen on the river Mokai, in New South Wales, on the 

 12th of July, 1839. Its migration to Australia and the Malay Archipelago must take place from North- 

 eastern Siberia by way of China, where Swinhoe records it only from Tientsin and Shanghai ; he does not 

 seem to have met with it as often as might have been expected, and its scarcity there shows that it is not a 

 very abundant species ; but it is a great straggler during the winter season. The same is observable on the 

 western confines of its habitat, as it is far from being abundant down the eastern side of Africa. It has been 

 obtained in Japan by Siebold. Von Middendorff met with large flocks, some of them containing fifty indivi- 

 duals, at the end of June, on the south coast of Okhotsk ; but they were not about to breed and were in 

 winter plumage. This seems to have been an assembly of first-year birds, to which we have a parallel in 

 Mr. Hume's account of a flock of fifty being netted at Calcutta at once. Schrenck procured it on the Amoor 

 river; and Mr. Seebohm reports it as common on the Yenesay as far north as Lit. 70° in the breeding-season; 

 and Dr. Finsch met with it in North-west Siberia, near Kara Bay, on the 20th of July. In Western Asia it 

 does not appear to be widely distributed. Scvcrtzoff does not record it from Turkestan, it being almost the 

 only member of the Asiatic Scolopacidaj which he does not notice; and Mr. Blanford only includes it in his 

 list of Persian birds as having occurred in one locality — Enzcli, on the Caspian, where Pilippi met with it. 

 It was not until the summer of 1875 that it was heard of in Turkey, where a pair were shot near the Sweet 

 Waters by a Mr. Pearson ; and it was unknown in Italy until three were shot in the neighbourhood of Pisa in 

 May 1869, and the occurrence published shortly afterwards by Salvadori. Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser state 

 that though it breeds plentifully in Northern Russia, it seldom visits any other part of Europe. 



Messrs. Alston and Harvie Brown found it abundant in the delta of the Dwina and on islands near 

 Archangel; and Mr. Seebohm and the latter gentleman met with it, but not in such numbers, on the Petchora. 



It has seldom occurred in Sweden, and is unknown in Great Britain and Spain, though it has been 

 procured in France. Down the eastern side of Africa it is a mere straggler. Neither Shelley or Von Heugliu 

 record it ; but Mr. Blanford met with an example on the coast of the Gulf of Adulis, and it has been shot on 

 the Arabian coast of the Red Sea. In the south it was obtained in Madagascar by Pollen, which is a great 

 proof of its wandering nature. Layard does not seem to have met with it in Cape Colony, and merely instances 

 a specimen having been shot in Natal by Mr. Ay res. 



Habit. — The exact position of the Avocct Sandpiper among the Scolopacidaj has been a matter of dispute. 

 Its curved bill has caused some to place it in the genus Limosa as a Godwit ; while others, looking at its short 

 legs, its note, and general habits, and the character of its eggs, maintain that it is more nearly allied to the 

 Totaniue section of the Sandpipers; and this would seem to me to be its proper location. It is, in fact, a 

 slightly aberrant member of the Totanus group, and constitutes a link between it and the Godwits. It frequents 

 the shores of bays, the mouths of rivers, the edges of salt lakes and lagoons, and,"except in the breeding-season 

 does not seem to affect ordinarily the vicinity of fresh water. It is often met with in small troops of from 

 three to six or seven, but has also a tendency to pack in flocks, probably before and during its migration. 

 Von Middendorft' remarks that when wounded it swam and dived perfectly; its webbed feet, as a matter of fact, 

 are adapted to make it quite at home on water. When separated by the approach of danger, he says it gave 

 out a piping note, which led him to believe it was one of the Totanus group. In its breeding-haunts on the 

 Petchora Mr. Seebohm notices that it is " extremely fond of running over the bits of floating drift-wood on the 

 submerged outskirts of the forest, uttering its musical tir-r-r-ivhui." Messrs. Alston and Harvie Brown write 

 that they " were much struck by the arboreal habits of this species, which perches freely upon bushes or low- 

 trees, and runs along the branches with great ease, uttering a rapidly repeated cry of alarm, which may be 

 expressed by the words tluk, tluk, tluh. When first started, or wheu flying from place to pdace, or dashing in 

 and out amongst the alder thickets, the more musical double note is uttered, whence its Russian name of 

 'Kuleek.'" I find some further interesting and more detailed notes on the Terek Sandpiper's habits, as 

 observed in Northern Russia, transcribed by Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser from the writings of Baron Count 

 von Hoffmannsegg and K. G. Henke in the ' Allg. deutsche natur. Zeituug' for 1856 ; and from these I subjoin 



