84(3 TOT AN US STAGNATILIS. 



In Pegu it occurs occasionally; but in the Irrawaddy delta it is more common, though "by no means 

 abundant" (Armstrong). Southward in Tenasserim it is very rare, only having been procured once by 

 Mr. Davison's collecting party near hot springs on the Attaran river. It is absent from the Andainans and 

 Nicobars, and has not been procured in Sumatra. It is, however, recorded from Java, where it was obtained 

 by Kuhl and Van Hasselt. In Borneo it was procured by Sclnvancr. It is a straggler to Australia; and it 

 therefore must visit many of the intervening Malay islands on its way thither," its course of migration being most 

 likely a direct one from Java and Borneo, through. the Timor chain. It does not seem to go to the eastward 

 at all, as I find no record of its occurrence in Celebes, the Moluccas, or Papua, and it furthermore does not 

 occur in the Philippines. In Australia Mr. Ramsay records it from the Wide-Bay District; and Mr. Gould 

 procured a solitary specimen on the banks of the Lower Mokai in New South Wales, in December 1839. 

 Turning north again, we find that it occm\s on passage on the coast of China; and Swinhoe obtained it in 

 Hainan in February, and likewise in Formosa. It is not recorded from the Japanese islands, appearing to 

 keep to the mainland in its northward passage. Middendorff and Schrenck both omit it from their works ; and 

 Prjevalskydid not meet with it in Mongolia or the Tangut region ; and, finally, Messrs. Finsch and Seebohm did 

 not observe it in Northern Siberia ; Professor Nordmann, however, in Demidoff's 'Voyage/ intimates that it is 

 found in Siberia. In Yarkand Dr. Stoliczka observed it during the first half of the winter, and records that it 

 disappeared in December. Dr. Scully did not meet with it ; but Sevcrtzoff says that it breeds in Turkestan 

 in the north and south-east, and is found up to an altitude of 4000 feet. In Palestine Canon Tristram observed 

 it in winter ; but it does not seem to be recorded from Asia Minor, and it is rare in Turkey. In the island of 

 Corfu it was obtained by Lord Lilford. Its habitat in Europe is chiefly central ; it occurs mostly in the south 

 and in the Mediterranean islands on passage in spring, and breeds in Hungary and on the waste lands bordering 

 the Danube, as also in Southern Russia. In Transylvania it is likewise common in spring and autumn ; and the 

 evidence as to its breeding there rests upon Herr Frivaldsky's obtaining it in the breeding-season ; this 

 naturalist has taken the eggs at Opay, in Hungary, and has seen the young near the Platten See. It is rare 

 in France and Germany, as also in Holland, and is the only member of the group which has not occurred in 

 England. It has been obtained once by Herr Gatke in Heligoland, an old male having been taken there on 

 the 7th May, LSG2 ; but it has not been observed as yet in Scandinavia. I find no record of its occurrence in 

 Spain, with the exception of Mr. Saunders's statement that there is a single specimen in the museum at 

 Barcelona. It is not uncommon, however, on the west coast of Africa ; Capt. Shelley found it plentiful at 

 Accra and at Cape-Coast Castle, and it has been obtained in Gambia and Ashantee. It is uncommon in 

 South Africa : Layard procured it at Colesberg and George, and further remarks that Mr. Ayres obtained it 

 in Natal. 



Von Heuglin states that it is found in winter on the Blue and the White Nile, and especially in the 

 marshes of East Kordofan; in March he observed it at the Tana Lake in Abyssinia, and in April and May in 

 breeding-plumage on the spring torrents of East Senaar, and also at Alexandria at the beginning of August. 

 It is natural, therefore, to infer that it may breed in Abyssinia. As regards Egypt, Captain Shelley writes as 

 follows : — " The Marsh-Sandpiper ranges throughout Egypt and Nubia, but is not very plentiful on the Nile 

 above Cairo, where we generally met with it singly or in company with the Wood-Sandpiper. In Lower 

 Egypt and the Fayoom it is far more numerous, and in these districts I may have seen as many as a hundred 

 in a day." 



Habits. — This elegant Sandpiper is one of the most interesting of the genus Totanus, on account of the 

 vivacity of its manners, the activity of its movements, and the tamencss of its disposition. Besides frequenting' 

 tidal flats, sand banks, muddy foreshores, fee., it is very fond of resorting to little pools in wet salt marshes 

 which are filled daily by the tide, and shallow enough when the water has receded for it to w^ade about in. 

 Here it is generally seen, in Ceylon, in company with the Long-toed Stint (Tringa subminuta) ; and as soon as it 

 is met with it is sure to attract particular attention by its actions. Strutting quickly about, this wav and that 

 way, with its bill in and out of the water, snapping up the luckless larvie right and left, taking a quick little 

 run to one side and then to the other, and seemingly quite unconscious of the doings of its little companions, 

 who are likewise plying a busy trade in the shallower water all around it, — if there ever was a greedy hungry- 

 looking bird, intent on gobbling up every thing that comes in its way in the shortest possible space of time it is 



