HOO ISS Gr MCEdJs > NY” J a op » WEI WO 6 a MJ AMUN NAY CRT SN LISS © Ah del ct bith rela) & WOR ter EURINORHYNCHUs PYGM QUS. Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Platalea pygmea, Linn. Mus. Ad. Frid., tom. ii edit., tom. i. p. 615. Eurmorhynchus griseus, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit. Birds of India, vol. ii. part ii. p. 693. pygmeus, Pears. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. Bonap. Compt. Rend., tom. xliii. p. 596.—Gra 156. fig. 6—Harting, in Ibis, 1867, pp. 234, 235. orientalis, Blyth, Ann. & Mag. of N Mus. Asiat. Soc. Calcutta, p. 270. Prod Deez Oe—al(ae Syst. Nat., 12th edit., tom. i. p. 231; Gmel. tom. il. p. 594.—Nilss. Orn, Suec., tom. ii. p. 29.—Jerd. VO). Vo ps 27 Ie Asiat. Res., vol. xix. p. 69, pl. 9.— y & Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. p. 580, pls. 152 and 1869, p. 426.—Gray, Hand-list of Birds, part lil. p. 51.—Swinh. in Ibis, at. Hist., 1844, vol. xiii. pp. 178, 179.—Id. Cat. of Birds in Nor more than tw enty-four specimens of this highly curious little Sandpiper have been collected iva hundred years ; and besides these, few others have been seen or satisfactorily determined as being identical with this rare bird. Linnzus was comparatively but a young man when he first became aware of the existence of such an anomaly. Nothing was then recorded respecting its history ; nor should we have known where to look for the bird, had not other examples been obtained from time to time during the interval between the date when Linnaeus wrote (1764) and that of Mr. Swinhoe’s visit to China in 1866 (ede Ibis, 1867, p- 234). Had the illustrious Swede’s specimen been the only one known, we might naturally have supposed that it was a mere lusus or freak of nature—an accidental dilatation of the mandibles of a Little Stint or some nearly allied species, so closely does the Eurinorhynchus assimilate to those birds; but as all the examples since discovered are alike, there is no doubt in my mind as to the specific if not the generic value of its distinguishing characters. Besides the general resemblance of its structure, the bird undergoes precisely the same changes of plumage in winter and summer as the Little Stint (Actodromas minuta)—the grey, white, and brown plumage of winter giving place to a russet-red colouring, more or less diffused, at the opposite season. The habitat of Linnzeus’s example was stated to be Surinam ; but this is a point which cannot now be deter- mined: the chances are that a wrong locality was given to him, and that the temperate regions of the Old World and some parts of the Arctic Circle are its true home—the winter being spent at the sandy mouths of the great rivers of China and Asia generally, whence the bird retires northward to breed in those high regions upon which man has not yet entered, but where, doubtless, many others of our rarer Sandpipers lay their eggs and reproduce their young. Still this is mere surmise 5 and I might not have suspected such a probability had not the specimen in full summer plumage, now in the new Museum at Oxford, been collected on the verge of the polar seas. An elaborate essay respecting this species having been published by Mr. Harting, I will say no ae but give this gentleman all the credit he deserves for the Ee manner in which he has treated the subject, by transcribing a large part of what he has said m ‘The Ibis’ for 1869: ; wera ae “Notwithstanding the vagrant habits of the species will compose the Limico Sak , is : a in searches of naturalists in all quarters of the globe, it is remarkable that a bird which . deseri a - than a century ago by Linneus should still be one of the rarest and ee i si ae ae all that has hitherto been published with reference to this species, It would appear the Ae. asi gic seripti ating’ more immediately in the wake of Linnzus did little else than copy his original description, perpetuating ; Sr ing li thing to by so doing the erroneous habitat which had been assigned to the bird, and adding little or nothing ; “78 ‘tain authors have created its history Under the name of Platalea pygmea or Eurynorhynchus QTiseus, ou nce eee : ea as . er species; while the few some confusion by describing birds which were properly referable to an ot I . ae ‘ a smens whic rere procure cen from specimens which wer iol ipti rd have all been taken a original descriptions on =. Pee of Eurynorhynchus was unknown; and even at the present ime the true habité plumage. For a long tim day its precise geographical range remains undetermined. . “The earliest notice of this species 1s to be found a al : iis cum Ludovic Ulricee Regine Suecorum,’ &c., ees es Adolphi Friderici Regis Suecorum,’ &c., Tomi secundi aoe Se Dill, referred this species to the genus Platalea ; : re a aon bp Gunes ee ie oe ee was a ae it differs sufficiently to justify the course which are certainly with the genus /7wnga;.- - - 5 i hic é resen it S ands alone. 5 i R US Inw hich a pi Ss Ss 1 son adopte d mM fo F 2g t Ee ft V t e ft st 1 octavo catalogue usually appended to his Linneeus in 1764, but entitled ‘ Museum He, no doubt from the form of the beyond this resem- and Temminck,