374 



Adult in winter (City of Mexico). Upper parts rather duller and greyer, the spots buffy white, the 

 markings on the throat and breast more obscure and duller in tinge of colour. 



Obs. Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway describe the winter plumage of the adult as being " similar to 

 the summer dress, but dark ashy above, less distinctly speckled, the forehead very indistinctly streaked 

 or simply washed with ashy"; and that of the young as "above greyish brown, lighter and more 

 olivaceous than in the adult, thickly speckled with buff; crown and nape pale brownish grey; cheeks 

 and sides of neck nearly uniform grey ; forehead streaked as in the adult, and feet more greyish than 

 in the adult." 



Like the preceding species, this is only an accidental visitor to us from the American continent, 

 and has been recorded as having been obtained in Great Britain on three occasions, but has not 

 been noticed elsewhere in Europe. The first occurrence was recorded by Mr. Robert Gray (Ibis, 

 1870, p. 292) as of one shot some years previously by the late Mr. William Gordon, of Airdrie, 

 somewhere on the banks of the Clyde in the higher grounds of Lanarkshire, and was examined 

 and identified by Mr. Gray ; the second was, as I am informed by Mr. Jenkinson, who kindly 

 sent me the specimen for examination, shot in the moors on St. Mary's, Scilly, on the 19th 

 September, 1882, by a man named Joe Smith, who shoots Snipe and Woodcocks on St. Mary's 

 when Mr. Dorrien Smith himself is not there ; and the third occurrence was that of one shot, as 

 I was informed also by Mr. Jenkinson, by young Mr. Vingoe, in Marazion marshes, Cornwall, in 

 October 1884, and was sold at Stevens's auction-rooms on the loth May, 1889, when Mr. Vingoe's 

 collection was dispersed under the hammer. The bird killed on St. Mary's is, I believe, in the 

 collection of Mr. Dorrien Smith. 



In America the Solitary Sandpiper has a very extensive range, being found as far north as 

 about 65° N. lat. in the fur countries, where it breeds, down to Argentina, in South America, in 

 the winter season. Sir John Richardson met with one at Great Bear Lake, in latitude 64° 30', 

 on the 14th May, 1826 ; Mr. Dall observed it at Nulato ; Mr. Ross records it from the Mackenzie 

 River, and Captain Blakiston (Ibis, 1862, p. 9) from the forks of the Saskatchewan in May. It 

 is found throughout British North America : I observed several pairs on the Musquash River, in 

 New Brunswick, during the two summers I remained there ; and Mr. Boardman records it as a 

 regular summer visitant near Calais, in Maine, but never numerous. Throughout the entire 

 United States it is generally distributed during the two seasons of migration, but, so far as I can 

 gather, it does not appear to be anywhere numerous, and probably does not winter even in the 

 furthest south of the States. I met with it on the Rio Grande in August, and near San Antonio, 

 Texas, in April; and Mr. Lloyd (Auk, 1887, p. 186) found it tolerably common in Western Texas 

 from September 5th to the 22nd, a few only remaining until October, but he rarely noticed it in 

 the spring. Mr. White also obtained it near the city of Mexico, Mr. Salle at Orizaba and 

 Cordova, and Mr. Whitely in Honduras. Barrows (Auk, 1884, p. 315) met with it in small parties 

 at Conception, Uruguay, in August, September, and October; and Messrs.. Sal vin and Godman 

 record it (Ibis, 1S80, p. 178) from Santa Marta, Colombia, in December. Count von Berlepsch 

 (J. f. O. 1874, p. 259) gives a detailed list of the localities where it has been observed in South 

 America, as far south as the Rio Plata and Argentina, and it was also observed by Mr. Barrows 

 between Buenos Ayres and Azul in January. It is also tolerably common during migration on 



