870 TEIXGOIDES HYPOLEUCUS. 



S.E. Mongolia, and is common on the Hoang-ho, but docs not occur in Ala-shan. In Kan-su and Halha he 

 met with it on its autumnal migration, and found it very abundant in the Ussuri country. Middendorff met 

 with it on the Stanowoi Mountains, North-eastern Siberia, nearly as high as the crest of the range, and 

 obtained it in August on the south coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. Schrenck found it abundant on the Amour 

 river; and Maack procured it on the Schilka. It has been noticed on the shores of Kamtchatka; and Von 

 Heuglin says it has been obtained at Krajak, south of Alaska. On the Yenesay Mr. Seebohm shot the first 

 example of this species on the 12th of June, and " found it frequent on the banks of the river wherever he went." 



Mr. Blanford met with it in Persia on the Elburz mountains at an elevation of 7000 feet, and in 

 Baluchistan at Bampur. 



My space prevents me doing more than glancing at its European distribution. It is a common bird 

 throughout the continent, migrating, as I have above remarked, to the extreme north, and frequenting the 

 southern portion in the winter. It arrives in England at the end of March, breeding in many counties as 

 well as in Wales and Scotland, and departing again sometimes in September; but it has been obtained, writes 

 Mr. Hancock, as late as the 10th of November. At the Straits of Gibraltar, Col. Irby records it as arriving 

 in October and November, and found it very abundant in April on passage north from Africa ; some remain, 

 he thinks, to breed, as he has seen them in May, in which month, likewise, Lord Lilford observed it in the 

 Castilles. " It is the most common of the Sandpipers," according to Favier, in Morocco; and he has seen it 

 on passage south as early as August. In Egypt Captain Shelley found it resident and evenly distributed 

 throughout that country and Nubia. Yon Heuglin says it is resident on the White and Blue Nile, in 

 Abyssinia, in Kordofan, and on the Gulf of Aden, but less common in summer than at other seasons ; he 

 did not find its nest, but believes that it breeds in the country. It has been found round the whole African 

 coasts to the extreme south, and is even recorded from the Sahara. It appears to be locally diffused, and 

 perhaps not abundant, along the extensive coast-line, as I observe that Governor Ussher did not procure it 

 on the Gold Coast, although it is recorded by Hartlaub from that region. It is scarce in the Transvaal, 

 according to Mr. Ayres; in the Cape colony, according to Layard, it is likewise so; it was obtained on 

 the Cape flats and near Cape Town, and he met with several at Zoetendals Yley. It is found in Madeira and 

 throughout the Canary Islands ; Mr. Godman says it nests in Teneriffe, but he does not record it from the 

 Azores. It wanders eastward to Madagascar, where Mr. E. Newton found it common on the east coast in 

 September and October. He writes that it inhabits Mauritius from September until April ; and he met with it 

 in the Seychelles, on the island of Mahe, in January. 



In Southern Greenland it has been observed ; but I am not aware that it has been detected anywhere on 

 the east coast of America. 



Habits. — One cannot but regard this most graceful Sandpiper with admiration, not only on account of 

 the extreme elegance of its form and the vivacity of all its actions, but also owing to its wonderful ubiquity, 

 and from the knowledge of the fact that its tiny form graces the sandy shores and coral reefs of distant 

 continents and remote islands, as much as it does the banks of our hill-streams in cultivated England and the 

 forest-bound shores of Ceyloncse tanks. It generally associates in pairs, or in little scattered troops of three 

 or four, and is usually a very tame bird. It may be seen running along the shores of the Colombo lake, close 

 to the road on which scores of vehicles are hourly passing, or flying from rock to rock on the Galle Buck, 

 uttering its clear shrill piping note, and often mounting up to the rampart of the bastion, where it will run to 

 and fro for an instant, oscillating its elegant form with a regular up and down motion of the tail. It will then, 

 perhaps, fly off to the rock which rises from the water a little distance from the shore ; and as the long mon- 

 soon swell laves its surface and almost covers it at each passing wash, the little Sandpiper trips to and fro, 

 avoiding the wave or fluttering up for an instant till it has passed over, when it will realight with its merry 

 trill, as if defying the ocean's sway. Such is its habit all round the coast of Ceylon — at home alike on beach 

 and rock, and ever restless, perpetually flying to and fro, and constantly uttering its pleasant whistle, both as 

 it rises and while it runs about on terra firma. Should a pair be haunting the same spot, a little distance 

 from one another, they answer each other, and often fly to meet one another, joining in a conjugal twittering as 

 they alight. On the sandy beds of forest-rivers it delights to run round the little pools or along the insigni- 

 ficant stream which is all that is left of the broad torrent of the rainy season; aud here it finds abundance of 



