398 
BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
THE CURLEW-SANDPIPER. 
Tringa subarquata (Guldenstadt). 
A scarce visitor to the Solway shore on the autumn-migration. 
Writing to his friend P. J. Selby in 1826, Sir WiUiam Jardine 
^ays : " I had the pick of Murray's collection last week. 
He had a very nice specimen of the pigmy-curlew which he 
shot at the same time that I got my specimen." In 1842 
Sir William Jardine writes of this species : "It has been 
in the autumn, after their return from breeding, that we have 
met with it on our shores, and have Idlled it on both sides 
of the Solway, either in small parties, or mixed with the 
Purre, or feeding by some muddy streams, in a salt marsh 
which they seemed fond of frequenting, and, when come 
upon unawares, would utter a shrill lengthened whistle, very 
different from that of the Purre under similar circumstances."* 
The above quotations do not mention any locaHty actually 
in the county as a place where this species was obtained ; 
and the salt-marsh " referred to may perhaps have been at 
Southerness (Kirkcudbrightshire), a well-known haunt of 
shore-birds, which Sir William Jardine was in the habit of 
visiting with his friend J. D. Murray of Murray thwaite. 
Whether in former days the Curlew-Sandpiper was more often 
met with on our shores is difficult to say, but its appear- 
ances on the autumn-migration are nowadays but casual. 
" The breeding grounds " of this species " are in Arctic 
Siberia east of the Yenesei, and it winters in the tropical 
regions of the old world."t To certain parts of the east 
and south coasts of England the Curlew-Sandpiper is an 
annual migrant in varying numbers, arriving in August 
and September, and sometimes staying till October: on 
the return passage to its northern breeding-haunts it is 
seen from April till June. 
* Nat. Lib., 1842, Vol. XII., p. 241. 
t Birds of Britain, 1907, p. 328. 
