but it is stated to have occurred in North-east Africa ; for Von Heuglin says that Hedenborg 

 informed him that he obtained it in Egypt, and he himself procured it at Suez in August, and 

 believes that he saw small flocks of this species at Ras-Belul, on the African coast of the Red 

 Sea. In the collection of Mr. J. E. Harting there is, I may add, a specimen said to have been 

 obtained in Egypt. Loche includes it in his work on the avifauna of Algeria as an accidental 

 visitant ; but he cites no instance of its occurrence, and it appears doubtful if it has really been 

 obtained there. 



To the eastward it is certainly met with as far as India. Mr. Blanford obtained it on the 

 Mekran coast, and Mr. A. O. Hume in Baluchistan. The latter gentleman writes (Stray Feathers, 

 i. p. 244) as follows: — "This species was very common in the Kurrachee harbour, and along the 

 Mekran and Sindh coasts. Dr. Jerdon says that the Broad-billed Stint is tolerably common 

 towards the north of India, rare in the south. To the best of my belief it is exclusively with us 

 a maritime species. No ornithologist probably has been so much about the great rivers of Upper 

 India as I have ; and I never once saw a specimen in the Central Provinces, Oudh, Behar, the 

 North-western Provinces, Rajpootana, the Punjab, or Sindh above Kotree ; nor have I ever met 

 with a specimen in any of the very numerous collections made in these provinces which I have 

 examined." Again (op. cit. ii. p. 298), he writes : — " I never met with this species on any of the 

 islands of the Bay of Bengal ; and it must, I think, be rare. Davison says, ' I only met with a 

 few of these birds at the Andamans ; they were associating with a small flock of T. minuta. I 

 did not observe them at the Nicobars.' " 



Dr. Severtzoff does not record it from Turkestan ; and in China and Siberia it is replaced by 

 a distinct species, differing in summer plumage in having the upper parts rufous, as in Tringa 

 minuta. This bird I exhibited at the meeting of the Zoological Society on the 20th June, 1876, 

 and described under the name of Limicola sibirica. I have examined a specimen of this eastern 

 species said to have been obtained somewhere in India. Nuttall says that the Broad-billed 

 Sandpiper occurs rarely in the United States of North America ; but this statement has not been 

 confirmed by later authors and may reasonably be doubted. 



In habits the present species does not differ much from its allies, except that at all seasons 

 of the year it is found on the borders of fresh water or in marshes, and not on the sea-coast. 

 Nor is it met with during passage in large flocks, but only singly or in small parties. 



I have only on one occasion had an opportunity of watching this Sandpiper in a wild state. 

 I was collecting on the small islands just off the coast of Uleaborg, in Finland, in June 1861, 

 with a couple of friends, lads home from school ; and when busy watching a pair of Temminck's 

 Stints, who had a nest on the little island of Pyoskari, I saw a bird pass which appeared to me 

 to be a Jack Snipe. It pitched not far off; and after watching it for a few minutes, and not being 

 able to make out what it was, I was going to flush it, when it rose ; and crossing near Franz, one 

 of my companions, he at once dropped it, and it proved to be a female of the present species. 

 We saw another, and I thought they must have a nest near ; but we could not find it. So far as 

 I can gather, the present species is much more of an inland Wader than a frequenter of the sea- 

 coast, and even during passage it is more frequently met with on the shores of inland lakes and 

 ponds than on the sea-coast. In its flight it reminds one much of the Jack Snipe ; but when 



