35 



back, it is numerous in the marshes of Bessarabia. M. Menetries found it also in the Caucasus. 

 Messrs. Dickson and Eoss procured it at the village of So-vok Schermeh, near Erzeroom. 



Before following out the range of the species eastward, we record its occurrence in Africa as 

 follows. Dr. Tristram observes : — Once seen on the coast of Palestine in December ; and a pair 

 shot at the south end of the Dead Sea in February, out of a small flock. Captain Shelley has 

 found it common throughout Egypt, all his specimens being in winter plumage. Examples from 

 Nubia are in the Berlin Museum ; and Petherick obtained it in Kordofan, Vierthaler on the Blue 

 Nile, while Heuglin states that it frequents the shores of the Red Sea even down to the Somali 

 coasts. On the Sinaitic Peninsula Mr. C. W. Wyatt found it in the marshes near Tor. In West 

 Africa we have it in our own collection from the Gambia ; and Verreaux has received it from 

 Casamance : it has been found at different points on the west coast down as far as Benguela and 

 Damaraland. According to Mr. Layard it is common at the Cape in winter, in marshes and on 

 the sea-board ; and Mr. Ayres has found it both in Natal and the Transvaal. Mr. Layard has 

 also met with it at Fazy on the east coast ; and Mr. Edward Newton says it is common in the 

 Seychelles archipelago. 



Dr. Jerdon in the ' Birds of India ' writes : — " Very abundant throughout India in winter, 

 associating in large flocks, and feeding on marshy ground, rice-fields, and the edges of tanks and 

 rivers. It is very excellent eating." Dr. Leith Adams noticed it as of common occurrence on 

 the rivers of the Punjaub ; and Captain Irby observed it to be numerous during the cold season 

 in Oudh and Kumaon. Hartlaub has recorded it from Ceylon. Although it has been stated by 

 Professor Schlegel and others to occur throughout the Moluccas, and to extend into Australia, 

 we cannot help thinking that in many instances T. albescens has been confounded with T. minuta 

 in the winter plumage. 



Dr. G. Radde observed the Little Stint commonly in the marshes at Kira (the south-east 

 part of the Apfelgebirge) on the 3rd and 5th of August. They were then in flocks ; but he saw a 

 few straggling single birds. The following note is given by Dr. von Middendorff: — " Commoner than 

 Tringa temminckii both in the high north and in the far south-east of Siberia. On the Tairnyr 

 river (74° N. lat.) I observed this species on the 17th of June, and found, in a female I had shot, 

 the eggs almost ready for exclusion. On the 22nd of June a bird of this species rose up before 

 me, uttering a shrill twittering, and hovered, like a hawk, on the same spot, the wings being held 

 up above the back, and at the same time struck out backwards. It is probable that this was a 

 male in the act of drumming. On the 1st of July I saw a female of this species run at me with 

 its plumage puffed out and head drawn in ; and it was so eager in the defence of its nest, that I 

 had time to take off my game-bag and knock it over. In a depression in the swampy moss four 

 greenish-brown spotted eggs lay, not twenty paces from a large pond. In the nest, under the 

 eggs, were only a few dry willow leaves, which had probably been blown thither by the wind, and 

 not placed there by the bird itself. The eggs agree with those figured by Thienemann. On the 

 10th of July I caught young birds in down, and saw others flying about up to the 11th of 

 August, latterly always in flocks of Dunlins (Tringa cinclus). On the Boganida the first of these 

 birds was not shot before the 6th of June. On the south coast of the Sea of Ochotsk I found in 

 the early half of June large flocks of this species consisting partly of males, and partly of females. 

 In colour these birds differed from those found in the high north by having the lower sides of 



