246 
PR.ECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL/E. 
the name of “ Plover’s Page.” During the breeding-season it is not seen along the 
shores. The young leave the nest immediately after exclusion, run about, and when 
alarmed, conceal themselves by sitting close to the ground and remaining motionless. 
If, during incubation, a person approaches their retreat, the male — and frequently 
the female also — flies to meet the intruder, and employs the same artifices for decoy- 
ing him from the nest or young as the Plover does. When the young are fledged, 
the birds gather into flocks, often joining those of the Golden Plover, resting at 
night on the ground in the smoother parts of the heath. When an intruder ap- 
proaches such a flock, the birds stretch their wings up as if preparing for flight, utter 
a few low notes, and either stand on the alert or run a few steps. Toward the end 
of August they betake themselves to the sandy shores. On a large sand ford in 
Harris, Mr. Macgillivray has, at this season, seen many thousands at once run- 
ning about with extreme activity in search of food, the place seeming to be a general 
rendezvous. Mr. Newton states that Dr. Paulsen has more than once received 
this species from Greenland, both young and in the autumnal plumage. It breeds 
there, and also on the Melville Peninsula, as well as elsewhere on the coast of Davis 
Strait. 
I have eggs in my collection taken in North Greenland ; but whether belonging to 
this form or to the americana, I am not sure. There is no perceptible difference in 
the eggs of the two species, so far as is known. Greenland specimens, perhaps of 
the American form, are slightly larger than the average European. 
Pelidna subarquata. 
THE CURLEW SANDPIPER. 
Scolo})ax subarquata, Guld. Nov. Comm. Petrop. XIX. 1775, 471, pi. 18. — Gmel. S. N. I. 1788, 658. 
Tringa subarquata, Temm. Man. I. 1815, 393 ; II. 1820, 609. — Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 104. — Aud. 
Orn. Biog. 1835, 444 ; Synop. 1839, 234 ; B. Am. V. 1842, 269, pi. 333 ; Cass, in Baird’s B. N. 
Am. 1858, 718. — Baird, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 529. — Coues, Check List, 1873, no. 425 ; 
Birds N. W. 1874, 491. 
Pelidna subarquata, Ridgw. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vol. 3, 1881, 200 ; Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 
540. 
Tringa ( Ancylocheilus ) subarquata, Bonap. Cat. Met. 1842, 60. — Coues, Key, 1872, 256. 
Ancylochilus subarquatus, Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 625. 
Scolopax africanus, Gmel. S. N. I. 1788, 655. 
Numcnius pygmeeus, Bechst. Nat.urg. Deutsehl. IV. 148. 
? Tringa islandica, Retz. Fn. Suec. 1800, 192. 
? Tringa ferruginea, Brunn. Orn. Bor. 1764, no. 180. 
Trynga falcinella, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-As. II. 1811, 188. 
Pelidna macrorhyncha, Brehm, Viig. Deutsclil. 1831, 658. 
Ernlia variegata, Vieill. Analyse, 1816, 55. 
JErolia varia, Vieill. Gal. Ois. II. 1834, 89, pi. 231. 
“ Scolopax Dcthardingii, Siemssen.” (Gray.) 
“ Falcinellus cursorius, Temm.” (Coues.) 
Hab. The Old World in general ; occasional in Eastern North America. 
Sp. Char. Adult, summer plumage: Back and scapulars variegated with black and rusty; 
crown rusty, streaked with black. Head, neck, breast, sides, and belly, deep chestnut-rufous ; 
anal region, also upper and lower tail-coverts, white, spotted with black and tinged with rusty ; 
wing-coverts and tertials brownish gray, the greater coverts tipped with white ; primaries and 
middle tail-feathers dark slate-color ; rest of the tail ash-gray, the feathers slightly bordered 
with whitish ; axillars immaculate pure white. Winter plumage : Above, brownish gray, in- 
distinctly streaked with darker ; tail-coverts (above and below) pure white, spotted with black ; 
superciliary stripe and lower parts white, the jugulum indistinctly streaked with grayish. 
