TEKEKIA CINEREA. 839 



the following extract: — " The note of the male, which is probably its pairing-call, is clear, loud, and full from 

 the throat. It is uttered, and often repeated, from a stone, root of a tree, a hillock, or any similar elevated 

 position, the bird moving its body and apparently exerting itself in calling. The note is of three syllables, 

 and sounds like kuivitzzilu, kuwitzzzilil, kmvitzzzuii, or also gizziiiiud, gizzzili, gizzuid, the last syllable always 

 rising higher and being more drawn out ; sometimes a low, flute-like, melancholy note {hahiaaa, hahiaaa, 



hahiaaa) is uttered immediately after, when the former call has been often repeated The peasants call 



the bird, very correctly, after its note, Kuwitri, whereas they scarcely distinguish the other species of long-billed 

 Sandpipers." 



Nidification. — The Terek Sandpiper breeds in Northern Siberia and Northern Russia, but not south of 

 lat. 60°; and it has been observed as high as lat. 70°. The latest notes which have been publisbed on its 

 breeding are those from the pens of Messrs. Alston and Harvie Brown, who were so fortunate as to find 

 it nesting in abimdance at the mouth of the Dwina in June 1872. These gentlemen describe the nest as 

 " simply a slight saucer-shaped hollow in the ground, lined with chips of wood and bits of thick reed, and is 

 placed in open marshy parts of the alder thickets, by the sides of ' Kourias ' or creeks, or in the sand amongst 

 bent grass." 



The eggs of this species are pointed ovals in shape, and of a stone-yellow ground-colour for the most part, 

 though some are browner than others. They are rather openly marked with blotches of dark sepia over faded 

 spots of purple and bluish grey of several shades, which in some cases blends with the large blots of brown. 

 Some eggs are distantly marked, while in others the colouring is chiefly at the large end in the form of 

 softened irregular clouds. In one or two specimens before me there are a few pencillings or streaks inter- 

 mixed with the blotches, making the eggs decidedly handsome. Some measure T47 by l'O inch, others 1*55 

 by T08 and 1*4 by T06. The series here described are in the collection of Mr. Dresser. Messrs. Alston and 

 Harvie Brown rightly observe that the eggs in many instances resemble those of the Common Sandpiper, 

 and further remark that they bear no resemblance to those of Limosa. 



Genus TOTANITS *. 



Bill long or moderately so, slender, straight, in some slightly recurved ; both mandibles 

 channelled in the basal half, the lower faintly so ■ nostrils linear, placed near the margin, tip 

 of the upper mandible slightly bent. Wings long and pointed, the 1st quill the longest ; tertials 

 lengthened. Tail moderately short, scarcely exceeding the closed wings, rounded at the tip. 

 Legs long ; the toes connected at the base by a small web, most developed between the outer 



and the middle toe. 



Sternum, as in other Scolopacine groups, variable, but usually with two emarginations or 



open foramina. 



* The present genus comprises a number of birds bearing, in outward form, a general resemblance to one another, 

 but almost all differing from each other in some point, either as regards bill and feet, or change of plumage in summer. 

 The most aberrant forms under consideration in this work are :— the first, by reason of its bill and the single notch in the 

 sternum ; the Common Redshank, on account of its highly-webbed feet; and the Green Sandpiper, as also possessing 

 a single emargination in the sternum and a very abnormal mode of nidification. 



