TEINGA SUBMINUTA. 891 



banks and edges of ponds, and in flocks of from ten to thirty." About Calcutta in the cold season it is to 

 be found in equal numbers with the Little Stint. Mr. Ball records it from Sambalpur and Lohardugga, 

 which are the only two localities as yet published in which it has occurred. As a matter of necessity, 

 however, it must be, to a certain extent, located along the east coast of the peninsula, by which route it 

 travels south to Ceylon. It is unknown in the north-west of the empire, and we have no record of its 

 occurrence on the west coast. As it is a bird of eastern distribution, it is, no doubt, more common on the 

 eastern side of the Bay of Bengal, and will, when that region has been more thoroughly examined, be found 

 along the coast of Tenasserim and the Malay peninsula. At present it has only been obtained at Tonghoo by 

 Capt. Ramsay, and at Thatone and Yea, in Tenasserim, by Mr. Davison. Further south it has been procured 

 at Malacca ; and in Java it was obtained by Kuhl, Van Hasselt, and Horsfield. Its range extends to Borneo, 

 where Schwaner obtained it, and thence to Celebes, beyond which island it has not as yet been met with. 



Its summer quarters are North-eastern Siberia and Amoor Land, from which region it was described 

 by Middendorff. It does not, however, appear to be abundant in such places which have been visited, and 

 its true breeding-home has evidently not been discovered. Von Middendorff met with only two examples 

 in all his travels ; one was procured on the western slopes of the Stanow r oi Mountains, and the other at 

 the mouth of the Uda; both were shot in the summer, and they form the types of his T. subminuta. 

 Schrenck likewise procured one pair only on the Amoor river, near the mouth of the Ssungari tributary, 

 on the 19th of July. Prjevalsky says that it inhabits the whole of South-east Mongolia, with the 

 exception of the Ala-shan ; but he did not see it at all in Kan-su and about Koko-nor. Mr. Blakiston 

 procured it in Kamtchatka and also in Yezo. Swinhoe obtained it on the China coast and in Formosa, and 

 remarks that it passes down early and returns late. It extends eastwards to the Philippines, where Dr. Meyer 

 procured a specimen in Luzon in February, which is noticed by Lord Tweeddale in his list of Philippine 

 birds. 



Habits. — This pretty little Stint, though affecting the vicinity of the sea- shore, is more of a marsh-bird 

 than other members of its genus in Ceylon. Its favourite resort in the Trincomalie district was the salt 

 marshes bordering the ooze surrounding the lagoons ; these are covered for about an hour before and after 

 the flood, and are overgrown with rank grass and intersected with little pools and watercourses leading to 

 the muddy foreshore. I frequently met with the Long-toed Stint at these spots in company with Totanus 

 stagnatilis and T. glareola, three or four individuals being the usual number mixed up with half a dozen of 

 these Sandpipers. When feeding at the edge of the ooze, or upon it, it generally consorted with its more 

 numerous relative the Little Stint. At times I have seen it in small parties of six or a dozen feeding in 

 " extended order " in long grass, which concealed them from my approach, and I then flushed them close to 

 my feet, like so many Snipe. In the summer season, when they were seen in the Hambantota district, 

 they were on the shores of the leways, associating with Curlew Stints and T. minuta. When I met with them 

 in the paddy-fields in the south of Ceylon they were found mixing with Wood- Sandpipers and feeding on 

 the newly "upturned mud ; and the stomachs of those I shot contained small insects and animalcule. Else- 

 where I have seen it round isolated pools or paddy-fields near the sea, and have noticed it consorting with 

 the Ringed Plover {JEgialitis curonica) . Its note is a weak trilling whistle, resembling in tone that of most 

 Stints, and not unlike that of the Dunlin, but much weaker of course ; it is not so loud as that of T. minuta. 

 Its flight is very swift, and when a little flock are proceeding at a great pace in close company they turn 

 and twist, alternately showing the upper and lower plumage in the same manner as the Little Stint. The 

 stomachs of all the specimens examined contained a large quantity of gravel mixed with the diet partaken of, 

 which consists chiefly of small aquatic insects and also flies which they pick off the grass. 



I know nothing of its nidification and am not aware that its eggs have ever been found. 



In ' The Ibis,' 1864, p. 420, Swinhoe mentions having seen what he considered to be an example of T. albescens in 

 the Museum of the Asiatic Society at Colombo. In this collection, however, there were, at that time, birds from other 

 localities than Ceylon ; and therefore the presence of a specimen in it was not a certain guarantee that its hahitat was 

 Cevlon. 



5t 



