OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 225 



Family CHAEADEIID^. Genus Totanus. 



Subfamily Totaninm. 



SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 



TOTANUS MACULAEIUS— (Lwm^Ms). 



Tringa macularia, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 249 (1766). 



Actitis macularia (Linn.), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 366 (1852). 



Totanus macularius (Linn.), Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 452 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. 

 Brit. B. iii. p. 122 (1885); Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 246 (1894); 

 Seebohm, Col. Pig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 136, pi. 43 (1896). 



Tringoides macularia (Linn.), Sharps, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 287 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 468 (1896). 



Geographical distribution.— ^nfe/i; In working out the geogra- 

 phical distribution of the Spotted Sandpiper for A History of British Birds, 

 Seebohm and myself came to the conclusion that of some twenty recorded 

 occurrences in the British Islands seven were apparently genuine ; an eighth 

 has now to be added. They are as follows : Yorkshire (one exainple), March, 

 1849; Lancashire (two examples), May, 1863; Sussex (two examples), Octo- 

 ber, 1866; Aberdeenshire (two examples), August, 1867; Co. Longford (one 

 example), February, 1899. It is most important to point out the fact that all 

 these wanderers with the exception of the Irish example appear to be adult, 

 and in breeding plumage with the underparts spotted. Without wishing to 

 call in question the hond fides of these seven examples, I desire to point out 

 the extreme improbability of so many adult Spotted Sandpipers reaching this 

 country in autumn, at any rate, in breeding dress. Not only so, but because 

 the Spotted Sandpiper is so different in appearance from the Common Sand- 

 piper, its Old World ally, in breeding plumage, and so very similar in winter 

 plumage, it is perfectly obvious that in the case of attempted fraud on the 

 part of unscrupulous dealers to palm off American examples as British-killed, 

 the greatest chance of success would be to select adult birds in spotted breeding 

 plumage for the purpose. It is the young and inexperienced birds — the birds 

 that have never migrated before — that are the most likely to lose their way, and 

 wander from their usual habitat. Old birds, comparatively speaking, know the 

 route too well to wander from it ; and of the great number of birds that stray 

 every spring and autumn, during the latter season especially, the great majority 

 15 



