882 TEINGA SUBAEQUATA. 



Borneo it has been shot in the province of Sarawak by Doria and Beccari, and at Poiitianak by Diard. On 

 the soutli coast of New Guinea it has been met with; and Mr. Ramsay records it from Port Essington, the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria, and Cape York. It likewise visits the entire coast of the island-continent of Australia, 

 and has occurred in Tasmania. Gould obtained it on ltottncst Island in Western Australia, and also at Port 

 Macquarie, New South Wales. Some examples have been shot in this region in summer plumage, and these 

 are, perhaps, the birds which occur so late in India in this dress ; Gould says that the change takes place at 

 the opposite season to that in which it occurs, in Europe; he does not, however, state the month, and the 

 specimens referred to may have been killed in March. 



On the eastern shores of the Mediterranean it does not seem to be common. Canon Tristram records it 

 from Palestine in winter, and Lord Lilford procured it in Corfu. In South-eastern Russia and on the Volga 

 and Kama rivers it is met with on passage ; but it goes very far north (as in Siberia) to breed. It was 

 procured on only one occasion by Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie Brown at Dvoinik. It visits Lapland and 

 Scandinavia in the summer, and is found in North Germany on passage. Mr. Durnford met with it in the 

 North-Frisian Islands on the 30th of May, but found that it had disappeared by the 7th of June. It is chiefly 

 an autumn visitant to the east coast of England. It is stated to have bred in Scotland ; but Mr. Hancock thinks 

 the eggs of the Dunlin have been mistaken for those of this species. It is not uncommon in spring in 

 Transylvania, and has been obtained there in breeding-plumage. The same is the case in Southern Spain, says 

 Mr. Saunders, where it is chiefly observed on passage in the spring. Col. Irby has seen it in great numbers 

 in Andalucia at the end of April, and found it in good breeding-plumage by the 20th of that month. Lord 

 Lilford also obtained it in summer dress in May on the Guadalquivir; and Mr. Dresser saw quantities iti the 

 market at Barcelona. It is stated by Mr. A. Brooke to be common during the winter in Sardinia. In Tangier 

 it is an April and September migrant; it is recorded from Algeria, and likewise from Egypt, where it is rare, 

 according to Capt. Shelley, who mentions the occurrence of two specimens only. Von Heuglin says it occurs 

 in autumn, winter, and spring on the banks of the Nile and its tributaries southwards to Kordofan, Sennaar, 

 and Habesch, It is more common, however, he says on the coasts of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and is 

 met with in summer at Sauakin and Massowah. It extends down the east coast to the Cape, and has been 

 procured at Zanzibar and Mozambique, and also in Madagascar. It has been obtained in Natal; and Ayres 

 recently met with it in the Transvaal in the month of February. Layard says that it is abundant along the 

 shores in the winter, and great flocks affect Robben Island and the mouth of the Salt River. He likewise 

 remarks that he met with it in great numbers at a place called Fagy on the east coast, within 1-i degree of the 

 line. Andcrsson records it from Walwich Bay in Damara Land ; and it has been obtained in every district 

 along the west coast which has been ornithologically examined. I find it recorded from Benguela, Gaboon, 

 the Gold Coast, Bissao, and Gambia. In the island of Madeira it was observed by Mr. Vernon Harcourt. 



In Iceland it has been found, according to Von Heuglin, and in America it occurs as a straggler. 

 Dr. Brewer informs Mr. Dresser that about twenty individuals have been from time to time captured, nearly 

 all in the vicinity of New York. 



Habits. — This fine Stint, though it is fond of frequenting sand banks, ooze, and foreshore left bare by the 

 tide, is frequently found on salt marshes near the lagoons and estuaries on which it has taken up its winter 

 abode ; and I have seen a little flock on dry rising ground a few hundred yards away from the water's edge. 

 It associates in Ceylon with Tringa minuta and T. subminuta; but when found in such company is generally 

 single or in a small troop of three or four. When collected in little flocks of six to two dozen or more it is 

 almost always unaccompanied by other species, and feeds gregariously in close company, the whole walking 

 nimbly about as they pick up their food. It does not run about as much as its smaller relatives, feeding more 

 after the manner of a Sandpiper than a Stint. At Jaffna in March I found it in large scattered flocks mixed 

 with Mongolian Shore-Plovers, but not associating with them in a marked manner. The birds met with in 

 the Hambantota district in the breeding-time were in little troops of five or six, and were frequenting the 

 mud flats surrounding the half-dried leways. I obtained a pair (one of which has been already alluded to as 

 having slight signs of the summer dress) which were at a little distance from a small company of their kind, 

 and were engaged in bowing to one another and strutting about in the performance of a little quadrille. 

 These birds had evidently paired and were engaged in courtship ; yet they were not about to breed, as I found 



