248 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



both inland and on the coast ; and a few appear to do so in the basin of the 

 Mediterranean. Those which migrate across Asia winter on the Mekran coast, 

 in India, Ceylon, the Andaman Islands, Burmah, the Malay Archipelago, and the 

 Australian portion of the Intertropical or Primogsean realm. It can only be 

 regarded as an abnormal migrant to South Australia, Tasmania, and South 

 Africa. An example in fullest breeding plumage was obtained in the Phillipine 

 Islands on the 18th of May. A small flock was met with on Aldabra Island, 

 north-west of Madagascar ; whilst it has also been recorded from Mauritius and 

 Anjuan Island in the Indian Ocean and abnormally elsewhere. 



Allied forms. — T. canutus with its ally T. crassirostris, and Heteropygia 

 fuscicoUis with allied species appear to be the most nearly allied, most of which 

 will be treated of elsewhere (see pp. 244, 259). 



Habits. — The Curlew Sandpiper is a late migrant, probably because it breeds 

 in the high north only. Great numbers of this species cross the Straits of 

 Gibraltar, and pass along other recognised routes in the Mediterranean district 

 about the end of April, travelling in small parties, sometimes in the company 

 of Knots and Dunlins, and these northern flights continue almost unceasingly 

 until the end of May. A few reach the British coasts in March or April, but the 

 majority pass in May, scattered individuals lingering behind the rest until 

 early June. The southern flight, begins in August and continues through 

 September into October, by the end of which month most have continued their 

 journey south to Africa again. Whilst with us the Curlew Sandpiper chiefly 

 frequents the coast, although it sometimes visits inland pools in the immediate 

 neighbourhood, as well as the marshes some distance from the sea. It loves the 

 mud-banks and wide open salt marshes, and is almost equally fond of estuaries, 

 but less so of sand-banks. Its habits differ little from those of the Dunlin ; its 

 flight is similar, and like that species it feeds both by day and by night, especially 

 during the period of a full moon. During high water, like many other Waders, 

 it frequently retires to some inland meadow or field or swamp, and there waits 

 for the ebb. The note is said to be louder than that of the Dunlin, and is 

 described by Legge as being like that of the Little Stint, but louder. Its food 

 consists of crustaceans, small worms, insects, mollusks, the roots of marsh plants, 

 and probably during summer of various ground fruits. 



Nidification. — Much less is known of the habits of the Curlew Sandpiper 

 during the breeding season than even of the Knot. Legge observed a pair of 

 these birds performing acts of courtship even in their winter quarters in Ceylon, 

 so that it is not improbable many individuals mate before they migrate. Its 

 great breeding grounds, I am inclined to think, are in the North Polar basin, in 

 undiscovered land north of Continental Asia — some El Dorado where the Knots 



