RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 43 



the occurrence of the species in summer, since the nest and eggs are 

 still unknown. The species passes south for the winter, through 

 China and Japan, to Australia, the Malay Archipelago, Burma, and 

 India. The only record in North America is of a single specimen 

 taken June 8, 1885, on Otter Island, Alaska (Ridgway). 

 [Cooper Sandpiper. Pisobia cooperi (Baird). 



The Cooper sandpiper is known only from the single specimen now in the National 

 Museum, taken in May, 1833, on Long Island. The status of the species is still in 



doubt.] 



Dunlin. Pelidna alpina (Linn.). 



The dunlin, an Old World species, has been noted a few times in 

 North America. A specimen was taken October 20, 1842, at Wash- 

 ington, D. C, and two days later a second was secured (Smith); one 

 was captured September 15, 1892, at Shinnecock Bay, Long Island, 

 New York (Young), and one August 11, 1900, at Chatham, Mass. 

 (Howe and Allen). There are less certain records of its occurrence 

 in the region of Hudson Bay (Blakiston). There seems to be no 

 sure record for Greenland, though the regular breeding range extends 

 west to England, Scotland, and Iceland. The species breeds east 

 to Turkestan and probably to the valley of the Yenisei, and north to 

 the islands of the Arctic coast. It winters from Great Britain and the 

 Caspian Sea south to northern Africa and India. 



Red-backed Sandpiper. Pelidna alpina sakalina (Vieill.). 



Breeding range. — The red-backed sandpiper has two well-defined 

 breeding areas corresponding in general to the Atlantic and Pacific 

 winter ranges. The birds of the Atlantic coast breed from north- 

 eastern Ungava (Weiz) and Cape Fullerton, Hudson Bay (Low), north 

 to Bellot Strait (McClintock) . A few (of either this form or the last) 

 breed on the west coast of Greenland, from which country there are 

 eggs in the United States National Museum. The birds of the Pacific 

 coast breed in Alaska from the mouth of the Yukon (Nelson) north 

 to Point Barrow (Murdoch), and on much of the northern coast of 

 Siberia west possibly to Yenisei River (Seebohm). The region of 

 intergradation along the coast of Siberia is not yet definitely deter- 

 mined. These two breeding areas are separated by nearly 1,500 

 miles of Arctic coast, from Point Barrow to the Boothia Peninsula, 

 and throughout this whole region there seems to be no certain record 

 of the occurrence of the red-backed sandpiper. If it does occur, it 

 must be very rare, and the probability that it does not is increased by 

 the fact that the species is not known as a migrant in the region 

 immediately to the south. It is abundant as a migrant along the 

 west coast of Hudson Bay (Preble) and has been taken at Dawson, 

 Yukon (Cantwell), but as yet is unrecorded in the intervening districts. 

 Winter range. — Few of the shorebirds go so short a distance to the 

 southward as the red-backed sandpiper. It is common in winter 



