846 
IOTANTJS STAGNATILIS. 
In Pegu it occurs occasionally; but in the Irrawaddy delta it is more common, though “by no means 
abundant ” [Armstrong ) . Southward in Tenasserim it is very rare, only having been procured once by 
Mr. Davison’s collecting party near hot springs on the Attaran river. It is absent from the Andamans and 
Nicobars, and has not been procured in Sumatra. It is, however, recorded from Java, where it was obtained 
bv Kuhl and Van Ilasselt. In Borneo it was procured by Schwaner. It is a straggler to Australia; and it 
therefore must visit many of the intervening Malay islands on its way thither, its course of migration being most 
likelv a direct one from Java and Borneo, through the Timor chain. It does not seem to go to the eastward 
at all, as I find no record of its occurrence in Celebes, the Moluccas, or Papua, and it furthermore does not 
occur in the Philippines. In Australia Mr. Ramsay records it from the Wide-Bay District; and Mr. Gould 
procured a solitary specimen on the banks of the Lower Mokai in New South Wales, in December 1839. 
Turnin' 1 ' north again, we find that it occurs on passage on the coast of China; and Swinhoe obtained it in 
Hainan in February, and likewise in Formosa. It is not recorded from the Japanese islands, appearing to 
keep to the mainland iu its northward passage. Middendorff and Schrenck both omit it from their works ; and 
Prjevalsky did not meet with it in Mongolia or the Tangut region ; and, finally, Messrs. Finsch and Seebohm did 
not observe it in Northern Siberia; Professor Nordmann, however, inDemidofPs ‘Voyage/ intimates that it is 
found in Siberia. In Yarkand Dr. Stoliczka observed it during the first half of the winter, and records that it 
disappeared in December. Dr. Scully did not meet with it ; but Severtzoff says that it breeds in Turkestan 
in the north and south-east, and is found up to an altitude of 4000 feet. In Palestine Canon Tristram observed 
it in winter ; but it does not seem to be recorded from Asia Minor, and it is rare in lurkey. In the island ot 
Corfu it was obtained by Lord Lilford. Its habitat in Europe is chiefly central ; it occurs mostly in the south 
and in the Mediterranean islands on passage in spring, and breeds in Hungary and on the waste lands bordering 
the Danube, as also in Southern Russia. In Transylvania it is likewise common in spring and autumn ; and the 
evidence as to its breeding there rests upon Ilerr Frivaldsky’s obtaining it in the breeding-season; this 
naturalist has taken the eggs at Opay, in Hungary, and has seen the young near the Plattcn See. It is rare 
in France and Germany, as also in Holland, and is the only member of the group which has not occurred in 
England. It has been obtained once by Herr Gatke in Heligoland, an old male having been taken there on 
the 7th May, 1862 ; but it has not been observed as yet in Scandinavia. I find no record of its occurrence in 
Spain, with the exception of Mr. Saunders’s statement that there is a single specimen in the museum at 
Barcelona. It is not uncommon, however, on the west coast of Africa ; Capt. Shelley found it plentiful at 
Accra and at Cape-Coast Castle, and it has been obtained in Gambia and Ashantee. It is uncommon in 
South Africa : Layard procured it at Colesberg and George, and further remarks that Mr. Ayres obtained it 
in Natal. 
Von Ileuglin states that it is found in winter on the Blue and the White Nile, and especially in the 
marshes of East Kordofan ; in March he observed it at the Tana Lake in Abyssinia, and iu April and May in 
breeding-plumage on the spring torrents of East Senaar, and also at Alexandria at the beginning of August. 
It is natural, therefore, to infer that it may breed in Abyssinia. As regards Egypt, Captain Shelley writes as 
follows : — “The Marsh-Sandpiper ranges throughout Egypt and Nubia, but is not very plentiful on the Nile 
above Cairo, where we generally met with it singly or in company with the Wood-Sandpiper. In Lower 
Egypt and the Fayoom it is far more numerous, and in these districts I may have seen as many as a hundred 
in a day.” 
Habits . — This elegant Sandpiper is one of the most interesting of the genus Totams, on account of the 
vivacity of its manners, the activity of its movements, and the tameness of its disposition. Besides frequenting 
tidal flats, sand banks, muddy foreshores, &c., it is very fond of resorting to little pools in wet salt marshes, 
which are filled daily by the tide, and shallow enough when the water has receded for it to wade about in. 
Here it is generally seen, in Ceylon, in company with the Long-toed Stint [Tringa subminuta ) ; and as soon as it 
is met with it is sure to attract particular attention by its actions. Strutting quickly about, this way and that 
way, with its bill in and out of the water, snapping up the luckless larvae right and left, taking a quick little 
run to one side and then to the other, and seemingly quite unconscious of the doings of its little companions, 
who are likewise plying a busy trade in the shallower water all around it,- — -if there ever was a greedy hungry- 
looking bii’d, intent on gobbling up every thing that comes in its way in the shortest possible space of time, it is 
