Herr Badekcr’s and Dr. Brewer’s Oological Works. 409 
said to come to this country from Russia, though there is little 
doubt that satisfactory specimens might be obtained thence. 
The greatest interest, however, gathers round the nidification of 
those Waders, such as the Grey Plover, Sanderling, Pigmy Cur¬ 
lew, Knot, and Little Stint *, which at irregular intervals and 
for short periods throng our shores in large bands, and yet of 
whose breeding-quarters what Englishman can speak with cer¬ 
tainty ? Dr. Middendorff, indeed, obtained eggs of the first 
mentioned, one of which is figured in his work, but he failed to 
penetrate the mystery which envelopes the movements of the 
others. Even almost at the extremity of the North-East Cape, 
in latitude 78° N., where the continent extends nearest to the 
pole of anywhere in the world, this intrepid voyager found in 
spring flocks of these species, restlessly pressing onwards, and in 
autumn there they were again, returning with their broods, to 
winter perhaps in the burning plains of India, by the great lakes 
of Central Africa, or even to push their outposts as far as the 
Cape of Good Hope or the still unknown shores of New Guinea. 
Vain seems at present the expectation of triumphing over the 
obstacles which offer themselves to the Oologist in this direction, 
but when the present undeserved unpopularity of Polar Explora¬ 
tion is overcome, when political emergencies have passed away, 
and adventurous spirits in our navy find no scope for their 
energies in a piping time of peace, may we not hope that a 
period may return when the fond dreams of old “ Arctics )y may 
be realized, expeditions fitted out, and the circumpolar regions 
reached, while their zoology is investigated by worthy successors 
of Richardson and Sabine ? t 
We depend on the Naturalists of Canada and the United 
States helping us to a knowledge of the peculiarly North 
* We had almost added to the number the Grey Phalarope, for, though 
there is reason to think that bird breeds in Iceland, we have no confidence 
in any of its reputed eggs received therefrom, but we recollect the speci¬ 
men in the late Mr. Yarrell’s cabinet, which, at his sale in 1856, passed 
into the hands of one of the keenest and most kind-hearted of collectors. 
It came from Melville Island, and is probably genuine. 
f In an admirable article on the additions made of late to European 
oology, the editor of ‘Nauinannia’ recently stated that the Little Stint 
had been found breeding in Siberia—but without giving any authority for 
the assertion. (‘ Naumannia,’ 1858, p. 125.) 
