368 



white and irregularly barred with brownish black ; underparts and a superciliary line white, the throat 

 with smaller, and the rest of the underparts with larger, brownish-black spots : bill flesh-coloured at the 

 base, otherwise dusky; legs pale pink; iris brown. Total length about 7'5 inches, culmen 1 - 15, 

 wing 4*1, tail 2*05, tarsus 0'95. 



Young (Washington, August 3rd). Upper parts dull olivaceous brown, without any metallic lustre and 

 without the blackish markings, except on the wing-coverts, which are barred with dull blackish ; chin, 

 throat, and underparts white, unspotted, the lower neck washed on the sides with pale ashy brown. 



Young in down (Koshkonong Lake, June). Upper parts greyish stone-colour, with darker marblings ; a 

 stripe from the base of the bill through the eye to the ear, one from the crown down the centre of the 

 nape, and a broad one along the middle of the back blackish brown; underparts white. 



A common and widely distributed species in America, the Spotted Sandpiper is said to have 

 occasionally strayed across the Atlantic to Great Britain. It has been recorded as having been 

 obtained here on more than thirty occasions, but most of these are undoubtedly cases of mistaken 

 identity; and Mr. J. H. Gurney, who has most carefully sifted all the evidence obtainable 

 respecting these alleged occurrences, informs me that only three are, in his opinion, above suspicion. 

 Many of these erroneous occurrences may have arisen from the fact that they have been identified 

 by comparison with the drawing in Bewick's ' British Birds,' which, as pointed out by Mr. Gurney, 

 really represents the Common Sandpiper (Totanus hy-poleucus), and not the present species. I 

 quite agree with Mr. Howard Saunders (Man. Brit. B. p. 592) that it would be most desirable to 

 be able to examine a specimen killed by some trustworthy person in Great Britain ; but I think 

 it advisable not to exclude it as a rare straggler, and have given careful figures of the adult and 

 young to assist in identification of any specimen that may hereafter turn up, and may point out 

 that in immature dress it may readily be distinguished from the young of our Common Sandpiper 

 in having all the secondaries barred with ash-brown, whereas in Totanus hy±>oleucus the eighth 

 and ninth are nearly white. 



The occurrences which Mr. Gurney considers to be undoubted are the following: — two 

 obtained at Warrington, in Lancashire, in May 1863 (Smith, Notab. Mersey Distr. p. 51); 

 one obtained at Eastbourne, Sussex, in October 1866, and now in the collection of Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney ; and two, a male and female, which, according to Mr. Robt. Gray (B. of W. of Scotl. 

 p. 299), " were left at the Aberdeen Museum in August 1867, in the absence of Mr. Mitchell, 

 who up to the present moment does not know by whom the birds were presented, or where they 

 were shot. Both were in the flesh, and had not been long dead ; they were very prettily marked, 

 and somewhat dissimilar in size, the male being the larger. The female is now in Mr. Angus's 

 cabinet; the other specimen has been kindly presented to me by Mr. Mitchell, and is now in my 

 own collection." 



It has, so far as I know, never occurred in Greenland ; and though it is stated to have been 

 obtained in Germany and Italy, there appears to be great doubt as to the authenticity of these 

 alleged occurrences. Naumann (Vog. Deutschlands, viii. p. 41) includes it as having been 

 " killed on a few occasions on the Rhine or Main, and also having occurred on the Baltic," 

 but adds that he never had an opportunity of examining any of these specimens. Count Nicolo 



