RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 43 
the occurrence of the species in summer, since the nest and eggs are 
still unknown. The species: passes south for the winter, through 
China and Japan, to Australia, the Malay Archipelago, ‘Burma, and 
India. The only: record in North America is of a single specimen 
taken June 8, 1885, on Otter Island, Alaska (Ridgway). 
‘(Cooper Sandpiper. Pisobia coopert (Baird). 
"The Cooper sandpiper i is known only | from the single specimen now in the National 
Museum, taken in May, 1883, on Long iar The nails of the species is still in 
doubt.] 
Dunlin. Pelidna alpina (Linn. ). 
The dunlin, an Old World. species, has been noted a few times in 
North America. A specimen was taken October 20, 1842, at Wash- 
ington, D. C., and two days later a second was secured (Smith) ; one 
was captured September 15, 1892, at Shinnecock Bay, Long Island, 
New York (Young), and one August 11, 1900, at Chatham, Mass. 
(Howe and Allen). There are’ less certain records of its occurrence 
in the region of Hudson Bay (Blakiston). There seems to be no 
sure record for Greenland, though the regular breeding range extends 
west to England, Scotland, and Iceland. The species breeds east 
to Turkestan and probably to the valley of the Yenisei, and north to 
the islands of the Arctic coast. It winters from Great Britain and the 
Caspian Sea south to northern Africa and India. 
Red-backed Sandpiper. Pelidna alpina sakalina (Vieill.). 
Breeding range.—The red-backed sandpiper has two well-defined 
breeding areas corresponding in general to the Atlantic and Pacific 
winter ranges. The birds of the Atlantic coast, breed from north- 
eastern Ungava (Weiz) and Cape Fullerton, Hudson Bay (Low), north 
to Bellot Strait (McClintock). A few (of either this form or the last) 
breed on the west coast of Greenland, from which country there are 
eggs in the United States National Museum. The birds of the Pacific 
coast breed in Alaska from the mouth of the Yukon (Nelson) north 
to Point Barrow (Murdoch), and on much of the northern coast of 
Siberia west possibly to Yenisei River (Seebohm). The region of 
intergradation along the coast of Siberia is not yet definitely deter- 
mined. These two breeding areas are separated by nearly 1,500 
miles of Arctic coast, from Point Barrow to the Boothia Peninsula, 
and throughout this whole region there seems to be no certain record 
of the occurrence of the red-backed sandpiper. If it does occur, it 
must be very rare, and the probability that it does not is increased by 
the fact that the species is not known as a migrant in the region 
immediately to the south. It is abundant as a migrant along the 
west coast of Hudson Bay (Preble) and has been taken at Dawson, 
Yukon (Cantwell), but as yet is unrecorded in the intervening Ssviots. 
Winter range.—Few of the shorebirds go so short a distance to the 
southward as ‘the red-backed sandpiper. It is common in winter 
