Birds of Celebes: Cbaradriidae. 
769 
early as July. The bird which Taczanowski (g 1) describes as young, and that of 
the allied H. incamis which Mr. S. B. Wilson figures [a 8, hinder fig.), appear to 
us to relate to the winter dress of the species, whether old or young. 
Eggs. Unknown. 
Distribution. N. B. and E. Siberia (Middendorff , Dybowski, etc. g 1)\ Baikal (Radde 
b Sy, Bering Id. (Stejneger J); Sakhalien (Nikolski g T)\ Kui-ile Is., Japan, 
Loochoo Is., Bonin Islands (Seebolim d 15)-, China (David d 4), Formosa (Swinhoe 
a 2)\ Phihppines (Challenger Exp., Everett, etc. d 5, d 6, d 12, d 14)\ Borneo 
(S. Muller, etc. d 5]\ Talaut Is. — Kabruang (Nat. Coll.); Creat Sangi (Meyer 
d 9, Bruijn d 3, Nat. Coll.), Siao (Meyer d 9, Nat. Coll.); Celebes — Manado 
tua and Mantehage (Nat. Coll.), Minahassa (Meyer b 4, etc.), Gorontalo Distr. 
(Riedel dll), Luwu (Weber a 9)-, Moluccas and Papuasia (Salvador! d7, 4); 
Australia (Ramsay d 13). 
So far as can as yet be judged this Sandpiper inhabits the countries washed 
by the West Pacific and its seas, breeding in some unknown quarters in the 
high north and migrating south in winter, probably as far as Australia. Until 
1885 it was believed to have a much wider range, to wander all over the islands 
of the Pacific as far as New Zealand and down the west coast of N. America from 
Alaska to California, in addition to the territories enixmerated; but Stejneger 
has shown that the East Pacific birds belong to a different species H. incanus, 
having the nasal groove about V 3 as long as the exposed culmen (instead of 
about V 2 as in hrevipes), while the middle of the abdomen and the under tail- 
coverts, like the other imder-parts, are uniformly barred with blackish grey in 
the breeding dress (the under tail-coverts and abdomen being white and un- 
barred in brevipes), the upper tail-coverts of incamis are only tipped, not barred, 
with white, and its size is somewhat larger. Seebohm (f 1) also points out 
that the tarsus of incanus is reticulated at the back, of brevipes scutellated. 
Owing to the former confusion of the two species it is impossible to define 
their geographical ranges with exactitude; it is necessary that the whole of the 
material should be looked through again. It is probable, for instance, that 
II. brevipes occurs in some of the western parts of Polynesia, and both are known 
to range to Bering Island and the Bonin Islands. Dr. Stejneger considers the 
two forms perfectly distinct, and we find it easy to separate the series in the 
Dresden Museum (those from the Celebesian area, Buru, and Timor being 
brevipes, one from Samoa incanus), but Seebohm was of opinion that they 
intergrade. 
The genus Heteractitis, represented only by these two forms,' is intermediate 
between Actitis and Totanus, differing from the former by its long primaries, 
the distance from the carpus to the tips of the outer secondaries being less 
than half the length of the wing (in Actitis it is more than half), by its bill, 
which is much stronger and closely similar to Totanus, and by the absence of 
the white bar across the primaries; from Totanus it differs principally by its 
short tarsus, which is shorter than the bill and only about V 5 the length of 
Meyer & Wiglesworih, Birds of Celebes (Dec. 6th, 1897). 97 
