MICROPALAMA HIMANTOPUS : STILT SANDPIPER. 20/ 



Mr. Brewster soon instanced several specimens from 

 Rye Beach, N. H., and Cape Cod, Mass. (Am. Nat., vi, 

 1872, p. 307.) Mr. Maynard, in Nat. Guide, 1870, p. 

 140, notes Mr. Brewster's first and second specimens, 

 the same as given by Allen, as above. It was in 1870 

 and 1 87 1 that Mr. Brewster secured the additional speci- 

 mens, being the ten referred to by him in the American 

 Naturalist, as just quoted ; he considered the species as 

 by no means rare. 



In his catalogue of 1875, Dr. Brewer enters the 

 species with the remark: "Migratory, (Mass.)" (Pr. 

 Bost. Soc, xvii, 1875, p. 445). In reviewing this cata- 

 logue, Mr. Purdie speaks, and correctly, as will appear, 

 of the bird as "migratory along the whole New England 

 coast" (Bull. Nuttall Club, i, 1876, p. 73). To this 

 Dr. Brewer replies : " So far as my own observations 

 go, and so far also as I have been able to obtain infor- 

 mation from others, ' H. A. P.' is not warranted in his 

 sweeping statement that Micropalama himantopus is a 

 regular migrant along the whole New England coast. 

 But if he is better posted, and can produce evidence 

 to establish his views on this long controverted point, 

 such data are too valuable and would be too important to 

 be suppressed " (Bull. Nutt. Club, i, 1876, p. 92). Thus 

 put to the proof, Mr. Purdie produces the following in the 

 next number of the periodical cited : " A word about the 

 Stilt Sandpiper {Micropalama himantopus), and I am 

 done. In the ' American Naturalist ' (vol. iii, p. 639), is 

 recorded the first supposed instance of its occurrence in 

 New England. In the same periodical (vol. v, p. 727) is 

 given the first supposed * instance for Massachusetts. 



* " Mr. F. C. Browne, of Framingham, has a specimen taken at 

 Plymouth in 1852." 



