838 
TEEEKIA CINEREA. 
Bernstein procured it in the islands of Morotai and Ilalmakera. It wanders south to Australia, where 
Mr. Ramsay records it from the Wide-Bay district and from New South Wales; but, as in the case of 
7 otanus glottis, it is omitted in his “Distribution’' list from Tasmania, where it was procured by Mons. Labil- 
lardiere (Sharpe ty Dresser). Gould obtained a specimen on the river Mohai, in New South Wales, on the 
12th of July, 1839. Its migration to Australia and the Malay Archipelago must take place from North- 
eastern Siberia by way of China, where Swinkoe records it only from Tientsin and Shanghai ; lie does not 
seem to have met with it as often as might have been expected, and its scarcity there shows that it is not a 
very abundant species ; but it is a great straggler during the winter season. The same is observable on the 
western confines of its habitat, as it is far from being abundant down the eastern side of Africa. It has been 
obtained in Japan by Siebold. Von Middendorff met with large flocks, some of them containing fifty indivi- 
duals, at the end of June, on the south coast of Okhotsk; but they were not about to breed and were in 
winter plumage. This seems to have been an assembly of first-year birds, to which we have a parallel in 
Mr. Hume's account of a flock of fifty being netted at Calcutta at once. Schrenck procured it on the Amoor 
river ; and Mr. Seebohm reports it as common on the Yenesay as far north as lat. 70° in the breeding-season ; 
and Dr. Finsch met with it in North-west Siberia, near Kara Bay, on the 20th of July. In Western Asia it 
does not appear to be widely distributed. Severtzoff does not record it from Turkestan, it being almost the 
only member of the Asiatic Scolopacidse which he does not notice; and Mr. Blanford only includes it in his 
list of Persian birds as having occurred in one locality — Enzeli, on the Caspian, where Filippi met with it. 
It was not until the summer of 1875 that it was heard of in Turkey, where a pair were shot near the Sweet 
Waters by a Mr. Pearson; and it was unknown in Italy until three were shot in tile neighbourhood of Pisa in 
May 1869, and the occurrence published shortly afterwards by Salvadori. Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser state 
that though it breeds plentifully in Northern Russia, it seldom visits any other part of Europe. 
Messrs. Alston and ITarvie Brown found it abundant in the delta of the Dwina and on islands near 
Archangel ; and Mr. Seebohm and the latter gentleman met with it, but not in such numbers, on the Petchora. 
It has seldom occurred in Sweden, and is unknown in Great Britain and Spain, though it has been 
procured in France. Down the eastern side of Africa it is a mere straggler. Neither Shelley or Von Heuglin 
record it ; but Mr. Blanford met with an example on the coast of the Gulf of Adulis, and it has been shot on 
the Arabian coast of the Red Sea. In the south it was obtained in Madagascar by Pollen, which is a great 
proof of its wandering nature. Layard does not seem to have met with it in Cape Colony, and merely instances 
a specimen having been shot in Natal by Mr. Ayres. 
Habit. — The exact position of the Avocet Sandpiper among the Scolopacidae has been a matter of dispute. 
Its curved bill has caused some to place it in the genus Limosa as a Godwit ; while others, looking at its short 
legs, its note, and general habits, and the character of its eggs, maintain that it is more nearly allied to the 
Totanine section of the Sandpipers; and this would seem to me to be its proper location. It is, in fact, a 
slightly aberrant member of the Tot aims group, and constitutes a link between it and the Godwits. It frequents 
the shores of bays, the mouths of rivers, the edges of salt lakes and lagoons, and, except in the breeding-season 
does not seem to affect ordinarily the vicinity of fresh water. It is often met with in small troops of from 
three to six or seven, but has also a tendency to pack in flocks, probably before and during its migration. 
Von Middendorff remarks that when wounded it swam and dived perfectly; its webbed feet, as a matter of fact, 
are adapted to make it quite at home on water. When separated by the approach of danger, he says it gave 
out a piping note, which led him to believe it was one of the Tolanus group. In its breeding-haunts on the 
Petchora Mr. Seebohm notices that it is “ extremely fond of running over the bits of floating drift-wood on the 
submerged outskirts of the forest, uttering its musical tir-r-r-whui.” Messrs. Alston and ITarvie Brown write 
that they “were much struck by the arboreal habits of this species, which perches freely upon bushes or low- 
trees, and runs along the branches with great ease, uttering a rapidly repeated cry of alarm, which may be 
expressed by the words tlvk, link, tluk. When first started, or when flying from place to place, or dashing in 
and out amongst the alder thickets, the more musical double note is uttered, whence its Russian name of 
‘ Kulcek."' I find some further interesting and more detailed notes on the Terek Sandpiper's habits, as 
observed in Northern Russia, transcribed by Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser from the writings of Baron Count 
von Hoffmannsegg and K. G, Henke in the ‘ Allg. deutsche natur. Zeitung' for 1856 ; and from these I subjoin 
