420 



TRINGA. 



Literature. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Breeding- 

 grounds. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Tringa subarquata (Giild.), Temminck, Man. d'Orn. p. 393 (1815). 



Tringa pygmaea (Lath.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. tyc. Brit. Mus. p. 30 (1816). 



Erolia variegata, Vieil/ot, Analyse, p. 69 (1816). 



Faloinellus pygmaeus (Lath.), Cuvier, Regn. An. i. p. 486 (1817). 



Tryrjga falcinella, Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat. ii. p. 188 (1826). 



Ancylocheilus subarquatus (Giild.), Kavj), Nattirl. Syst. p. 50 (1829). 



Ealcinellus cursorius, Temminck, PL Col. no. 510 (1830). 



Pelidna subarquata (Giild.), Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 657 (1831). 



Tringa (Pelidna) chinensis, Gray, Zool. Miscell. p. 2 (1831). 



iErolia varia, Vieillot, Gal. des Ois. ii. p. 89 (1834). 



Falcinellus cuvieri, Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. ^ N. Amer. p. 50 (1838). 



Schoeniclus subarquatus (Giild.), Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 105 (1814). 



Tringa ferruginea, Briinnich, fide Coues fy Co. Check-list N. Amer. Birds, p. 152 (1886). 



Plates.— Daub. PI. Enl. no. 851; Temminck, PI. Col. no. 510; Gould, Birds Gt. Brit. iv. 



pi. 68 ; Dresser, Birds of Europe, viii. pi. 553. 

 Habits. — Seebobm, British Birds, iii. p. 180. 

 Eggs. — Unknown. 



The Curlew Sandpiper is the only Tringa with white on the upper tail-coverts which 

 has a decurved bill. 



Its seasonal changes of plumage precisely resemble those of the Knot, to which it is 

 obviously very closely allied. 



The breeding-grounds of the Curlew Sandpiper are as yet undiscovered. The few 

 stray examples which have been obtained on the shores of the Arctic Ocean during summer 

 are probably very old birds which have ceased to breed, or very young birds which have 

 not begun to breed. It probably breeds on the Liakov Islands, as Dr. Bunge observed 

 small flocks passing through the delta of the Lena on migration during the middle of June 

 (Seebohm, Trans. Norf. & Norw. Nat. Soc. iv. p. 303). The alleged breeding of the 

 Curlew Sandpiper on the Yalmal Peninsula and in Greenland (Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, 

 Water-Biids N. Amer. i. p. 248) are both admitted to be myths, as is unquestionably the 

 story of its nest and eggs having been discovered in Scotland (Gray, Birds of the West of 

 Scotland, p. 318) ; and the statement of Sabanaeff that it may breed in the Ural Mountains 

 must be referred to the same category (Harvie Brown, Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, 

 1877, p. 308). 



The Curlew Sandpiper is not an uncommon bird on the coasts of the British Islands 

 during the period of its autumn migration and is occasionally seen in spring. It is 

 doubtfully recorded from Iceland and Greenland, but inasmuch as it occurs as an accidental 

 straggler on the Atlantic coast of North America, it is most probable that these records are 

 true. Both Henke and Harvie Brown obtained it in summer at Archangel ; I found it 

 both in the valleys of the Petchora and the Yenesay. Middendorff obtained it on the 



