GREY-RUMPED SANDPIPER. 
Mr. Tom Carter sent me the following : “ This species was fairly common 
on some parts of the coast of the North West Cape from November to May. 
Sometimes they were in flocks of from fifty to one hundred birds. On one 
occasion I killed eight birds on discharging one barrel of my gun at quite a 
large party of waders whose identity was previously uncertain. 
“ The latest date on which I observed specimens was on the 6th June, 
1899, when I shot one out of a small flock feeding in a mangrove swamp near 
the North West Cape.” 
Middendorff found it along the North coast of the Sea of Ochotsk in 
large flocks, throughout the summer. 
Radde records that he shot, on July 15th, an old female, that was hving 
alone on Lake Baikal, not far from the high Kodshor Mountains. 
“ Dybowski and Godlewski found it plentiful in all the countries they 
visited between Baikal and the Sea of Japan on the low ground by rivers, 
lakes and seas. In the spring they arrive in the early days of May and are 
seen until the end of the month ; in the autumn they return south in the first 
days of September.” (Taczanowski.) 
Of the birds figured and described, the one in winter-plumage was collected 
at Port Hacking, New South Wales, in November, 1892 ; the one in summer- 
plumage at Point Torment, North-west Austraha, on March 14th, 1911, by 
Mr. J. P. Rogers. 
The two forms here admitted I consider should be regarded as of subspecific 
value only, though there is much argument for their specific separation. 
How very close they are can be realised by the fact that many of the best 
ornithologists failed to appreciate the differences until Stejneger {Bull. U.S. 
Nat. Mus., No. 29, 1885, p. 132, et seq.) carefully detailed these. I have 
criticised many specimens and find his characters quite reliable but not always 
constant, hence my conclusion. 
H. incanus and brevipes seem to be geographical representatives of each 
other with probably quite distinct breeding-grounds. The former is the 
American and Polynesian wandering form, the latter the subspecies that 
visits Asia and Australia. The differences pointed out by Stejneger and 
recognised by me, are firstly : in H. incanus the groove in the exposed culmen 
is about two-thirds its length ; in H. brevipes it is only about one-half. If 
the birds thus separated are further criticised, the former is darker grey 
above while the latter is paler brownish-grey in whatever plumage it may be ; 
the former also averages very slightly larger throughout. In their summer- 
plumages they differ more decidedly, H. incanus being uniformly barred 
underneath right to the under-tail coverts. H. brevipes has the bars less 
decidedly marked on the breast while they disappear on the middle of 
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