366 



grassy spots. Their motions on the wing are very similar to those of the latter, and they were 

 rarely shy. On October 1st, 1880, they were found scattered singly over the marsh, and rose 

 30 to 40 yards in advance, and made off with a twisting flight, uttering at the same time a short, 

 soft, metallic pleep, pleep, and, pursuing an erratic circuitous flight for a time, they generally 

 returned and settled near the spot whence they started." Those observed on the coast of 

 Siberia were, he says, very unsuspicious, and allowed him to pass close to them, or circled close 

 about him. They sometimes remain on the shore of Norton Sound up to the 12th of October, 

 and he has seen them searching for food along the tide-line when the ground was covered with 

 two inches of snow. " When feeding along the edges of the tide creeks they may almost be 

 knocked over with a paddle, and when a flock is fired into it returns again and again." 

 Mr. Gould also writes {I. c.) that in Australia "The sandy beaches of the sea-coast and the 

 banks of the rivers in the interior of the country are equally visited by it ; and in all such 

 situations it is to be seen either in pairs or in small parties of from six to fifteen in number. It 

 is very fearless, and will allow of the nearest approach before it will take wing. In its economy 

 it appeared to me to hold an intermediate station between the Sandpipers and true Snipes. It is 

 a bird especially fond of the grassy sides of lagoons and open wet marshy places, where it trips 

 over the herbage which rests on the surface of the water, and sometimes wades up to its body in 

 search of insects. Its flight resembles that of the true Snipes. Of the specimens killed, by far 

 the greater number were birds of the year." Nothing appears to be known respecting the 

 nidification of this Sandpiper, which doubtless breeds in Arctic Siberia. Three eggs of a 

 Sandpiper were obtained on the 'Vega' expedition at the winter- quarters on the 3rd July, 1879, 

 which Professor Palmen (Sib. Ishafsk. Fogelf. p. 323) thinks were very probably those of the 

 present species, but as they were absolutely unidentified this is merely a surmise on the part of 

 the Professor. Meves describes these eggs as having the ground-colour greyish white with a 

 yellowish tinge, the shell-markings reddish grey, the spots small, rusty brown or liver-brown, 

 becoming confluent at the larger end, where the ground-colour is scarcely visible. The shape is 

 pure oval, not the least diminished at the pointed end; they agree both in weight and size as 

 well as in grain of shell with some eggs of Limicola platyrkyncha, but differ considerably from 

 those of Tringa cdjjina. The measurements and weights are given by Meves as follows: — 

 32x23 mm., weight 0'3S gr. ; 33x22-8 mm., weight 0-38 gr. ; and 31-5 X 23-3 mm., weight 

 0-40 gr. 



The specimens figured are those above described, and are in my own collection. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 



a, S a( l- Shanghai, April 1873 (R. Swinhoe). b,juv. Yokohama (H. Pryer). 



E Mus. H. B. Tristram. 



a. Takow, Formosa, I860; b, J. Shanghai, April 1873 (R. Swinhoe). c,S • Hakodadi, October 29th, 1893; 

 d, e. Yokohama (Henson). 



