882 
TRINGA SUBAEQUATA. 
Borneo it has been shot in the province of Sarawak by Doria and Beccari, and at Pontianak by Diard. On 
the south coast of New Guinea it has been met with; and Mr. Eamsay records it from Port Essington, the 
Gulf of Carpentaria, and Cape York. It likewise visits the entire coast of the island-continent of Australia, 
and has occurred in Tasmania. Gould obtained it on Rottnest Island in Western Australia, and also at Port 
Macquarie, New South Wales. Some examples have been shot in this region in summer plumage, and these 
are, perhaps, the birds which occur so late in India in this dress ; Gould says that the change takes place at 
the opposite season to that in which it occurs in Europe; he does not, however, state the month, and the 
specimens referred to may have been killed in March. 
On the eastern shores of the Mediterranean it does not seem to be common. Canon Tristram records it 
from Palestine in winter, and Lord Lilford procured it in Corfu. In South-eastern Russia and on the Volga 
and Rama rivers it is met with on passage ; but it goes very far north (as in Siberia) to breed. It was 
procured ou only one occasion by Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie Brown at Dvoinik. It visits Lapland and 
Scandinavia in the summer, and is found in North Germany on passage. Mr. Durnford met with it in the 
North-Frisian Islands on the 30th of May, but found that it had disappeared by the 7th of June. It is chiefly 
an autumn visitant to the east coast of England. It is stated to have bred in Scotland ; but Mr. Hancock thinks 
the eggs of the Dunlin have been mistaken for those of this species. It is not uncommon in spring in 
Transylvania, and has been obtained there in breeding-plumage. The same is the case in Southern Spain, says 
Air. Saunders, where it is chiefly observed on passage in the spring. Col. Irby has seen it in great numbers 
in Andalucia at the end of April, and found it in good breeding-plumage by the 20tli of that mouth. Lord 
Lilford also obtained it in summer dress in May on the Guadalquivir ; and Air. Dresser saw quantities in the 
market at Barcelona. It is stated by Air. A. Brooke to be common during the winter in Sardinia. In Tangier 
it is an April and September migrant; it is recorded from Algeria, and likewise from Egypt, where it is rare, 
according to Capt. Shelley, who mentions the occurrence of two specimens only. Von Heuglin says it occurs 
in autumn, winter, and spring on the banks of the Nile and its tributaries southwards to Kordofan, Sennaar, 
and Habesch. It is more common, however, he says ou the coasts of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, and is 
met with in summer at Sauakin and Alassowah. It extends down the east coast to the Cape, and has been 
procured at Zanzibar and Alozambique, and also in Aladagascar. It has been obtained in Natal; and Ayres 
recently met with it in the Transvaal in the month of February. Layard says that it is abundant along the 
shores in the winter, and great flocks affect Robben Island and the mouth of the Salt River. He likewise 
remarks that he met with it in great numbers at a place called Fagy ou the east coast, within 1 degree of the 
line. Andersson records it from AValwich Bay in Damara Land; and it has been obtained in every district 
along the west coast which has been ornithologically examined. I find it recorded from Benguela, Gaboon, 
the Gold Coast, Bissao, and Gambia. In the island of Madeira it was observed by Mr. Vernon Ilarcourt. 
In Iceland it has been found, according to A r on Heuglin, and in America it occurs as a straggler. 
Dr. Brewer informs Air. Dresser that about twenty individuals have been from time to time captured, nearly 
all in the vicinity of New York. 
Habits . — This fine Stint, though it is fond of frequenting sand banks, ooze, and foreshore left bare bv the 
tide, is frequently found on salt marshes near the lagoons and estuaries on which it has taken up its winter 
abode ; and I have seen a little flock on dry rising ground a few hundred yards away from the water’s edge 
It associates in Ceylon with Tringa minuta and T. subminuta ; but when found in such company is generally 
single or in a small troop of three or four. When collected in little flocks of six to two dozen or more it is 
almost always unaccompanied by other species, and feeds gregariously in close company, the whole walking 
nimbly about as they pick up their food. It does not run about as much as its smaller relatives, feeding more 
after the manner of a Sandpiper than a Stint. At Jaffna in Alarch I found it in large scattered flocks mixed 
with Alongolian Shore-Plovers, but not associating with them in a marked manner. The birds met with in 
the Hambantota district in the breeding-time were in little troops of five or six, and were frequenting the 
mud flats surrounding the half-dried leways. I obtained a pair (one of which has been already alluded to as 
having slight signs of the summer dress) which were at a little distauce from a small company of their kind, 
and were engaged in bowing to one another and strutting about in the performance of a little quadrille. 
These birds had evidently paired and were engaged in courtship ; yet they were not about to breed, as I found 
