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most water-birds on the Damara coast whenever a high wind arises. On ordinary occasions the 

 Curlew Sandpiper is comparatively tame, and numbers may be bagged without difficulty. Con- 

 siderable variations of plumage are to be met with, as I have shot at the same time specimens in 

 the grey dress and others in which the plumage has been almost of a rusty red." In the Cape 

 colony it is abundant, Mr. Layard says, along the shores in winter plumage, and lives in great 

 flocks on Robben Island and at the mouth of the Salt River; and on the 26th April 1868 he 

 received an example alive, in full breeding-dress, which had been captured near Cape-town. In 

 Natal, Mr. Gurney writes (Ibis, 1862, p. 34), "these birds are gregarious, frequenting the bay 

 in considerable flights, and feeding on the mud-banks when the tide recedes ; they run about on 

 the mud with great activity ; and their flight is also exceedingly swift." The present species has 

 also been recorded from Mozambique, Zanzibar, and Madagascar. 



In Asia it is found right across the continent to China. Pallas states that it is found on the 

 shores of the Caspian in spring ; and Mr. A. O. Hume writes (Stray Feathers, i. p. 242) : — " The 

 Curlew Stint was pretty abundant on the Sindh and Mekran coast, much less so, however, than 

 the Dunlin. While the Dunlin abounds on every large river of Upper India throughout the 

 cold season, I have never yet met with Tringa subarquata more than one hundred miles from the 

 sea-coast, except at the great salt lake of Rajpootana at Sambhur, whence, as also from the 

 Yarkand river, I have it in summer plumage. It does not, however, breed at Sambhur." 

 According to Dr. Jerdon (B. of India, ii. p. 689), it "is found throughout India, is rare towards 

 the south, common about Calcutta, and in the north of India generally ;" but Mr. Hume remarks, 

 " Dr. Jerdon tells us that this species is common in the north of India generally, whereas neither 

 I myself, nor any of my numerous coadjutors, have ever obtained it in the N.W. Provinces, Oudh, 

 the Central Provinces, Rajputana, or the Panjab." On the other hand, Colonel Irby states (Ibis, 

 1861, p. 240) that it is occasionally observed in Oudh and Kumaon in the cold season. According 

 to Dr. Henderson (Lahore to Yarkand, p. 288), " this species was common in the marshes in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of Yarkand. Specimens obtained at the close of August were in a 

 transitional stage between the breeding- and winter-plumage." In Siberia it is tolerably common. 

 Von MiddendorfF first saw it on the Taimyr, in 74° N. lat., on the 4th June ; and soon after they 

 scattered in the swampy parts of the tundra to breed. A female shot on the 15th (27th) June 

 had an egg in her nearly ready to be laid. Near the mountains, he adds, it became rarer, and 

 he met with it on the Boganida on the 27th May, but it did not appear to breed there. Von 

 Schrenck obtained a single specimen, on the 15th (27th) August, near Agdeki, on the Ussuri ; 

 and Dr. Radde met with it in flocks, in full summer dress, on the 31st July (O. S.), on the 

 Dshindagatai lake. It is found in China and Mongolia ; and Pere David says (Ois. de la Chine, 

 p. 473) that he has seen it on passage, in large numbers, on the coasts of China, and met with it 

 in full summer dress in Mongolia ; but Mr. Swinhoe states that it is found near Pekin, but rarely 

 (if ever) visits the southern coasts of China — though he procured it at Amoy and on Formosa. 

 It has been met with, however, southward to the Andaman Islands, Java, Borneo, (according to 

 Temminck) in New Guinea, and (to Gould) in Australia : Davison says (fide Hume, Str. Feathers, 

 ii. p. 297): — " Small flocks of this bird are to be met with about the creeks and sea-shore at 

 the Andamans ; I did not obtain it at the Nicobars ; nor did I observe it at Port Blair after my 

 return from the Nicobars in March. I, however, once saw a small party of three or four on the 



