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LIMICOLA PYGM AA.
Broad-billed Sandpiper.

Numenius pygmaeus, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 713.

pusillus, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., tom. iy. Peele
Tringa platyrhyncha, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edi
eloriodes, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat.,
pygmea, Savi, Orn. Tosce., tom. ii. p. 291.
Limicola pygmea, Koch, Baier. Zool., tom. i. p. 315.
Pelidna platyrhyncha, Cuv., Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List of Birds of Eur.

t. tom. ii. p. 616.
tom. xxxiv. p. 465.

 

 

and N. Amer., p. 50.

 

Tue bird now under consideration is not ar

egular migrant, and hence it must be classed among our
accidental visitors. On the Continent it is mor

€ common, dwelling in its southern portions during winter,
and retiring in summer to Norway, Sweden, and Lapland, to breed and rear its young. Of all the Sandpipers
it is probably the one which approaches most nearly to the Scolopacide ; and although quite distinct in
structure from the little Jack Snipe, it strongly reminds us of that bird, in its small size and general
contour, and also in some of its habits. M. Godefroy Lunel, Conservator of the Museum of the
Academy of Geneva, has published, in the first volume of the ‘Bulletin de la Société Ornithologique
Suisse,’ a very carefully written account of its peculiarities, which is too lengthy for entire transcription,
but from which I shall venture to give a translation of the less technical portion.

‘The broad-billed Sandpiper appears in the environs of Montpellier every year during the earlier part
of August, when a few isolated individuals are captured in the nets laid by the bird-catchers in the neigh-
bourhood of the marshes. By their means I have had opportunities of examining numerous specimens,
both dead and living, and of making myself acquainted with the remarkable structure of the beak, whence
it obtained one of its specific names. It is soft and flexible throughout its entire length, depressed
and slightly bent towards the point, with a lateral furrow extending nearly to the tip of each mandible.
The two branches of the inferior maxillary are completely ossified in their anterior third, and are
contiguous for the remainder of their length, but not united. The skin of the chin, which embraces the
base of the beak and the triangle formed by the bifurcation of the base of the lower mandible, is square
at the top of the throat, devoid of feathers, and forms a small pouch, which may be contracted by
the bird at pleasure; it is of a reddish ash-colour during life, but becomes yellowish and wrinkled after
death. It is small in young birds, but appears to increase in size as they advance in age.”

I find only three instances recorded of the bird’s appearance in our Islands, namely, two in England, and
one in Ireland. The first of the English specimens was killed on the muddy flats of Breydon Broad,
in Norfolk, on the 25th of May, 1836; the second, near Shoreham, in Sussex, in October, 1845. The
Irish example was killed on the oozy banks of Belfast Bay, on the 4th of October, 1844, with eleven
Golden Plovers and seven or eight Dunlins, at one shot from a swivel-gun.

The late Mr. Wheelwright says:—‘‘ Till within the last few years the Broad-billed Sandpiper appears
to have been entirely overlooked in Sweden; but I do not think it is so very ware there. Twelve years
ago I shot three specimens in August, in the very south of the country ; Bunce hen I have shot tie
hid if Wermland; and now I have taken the nest in Lulea, Lapland. Of all le Sandpipers this certainly
is the most unobtrusive and the shiest in its habits; and its custom of creeping among the grass, like a
little mouse, causes it to be very seldom seen. When flushed, which is never until you cy tread upon
it, it rises with a faint single call-note, flies for a very little distance, then te a a as next to
impossible to get it up a second time without a dog. : only found one eee in a high- ; de oe

Mr. Dann informed Mr. Yarrell that ‘this Sandpiper is by no means uncommon during the g

in Lulea, and Tornea Lapmark, frequenting grassy morasses and swamps, in small colonies, generally
season in a, é

in the same places as those frequented by the Wood-Sandpiper. It breeds also at Fogstuen, on the Dovre-

about three thousand feet above the level of the sea), in Norway, where it arrives at the

Bg oceans ( ild and shy, and similar in its habits to the other species

eae oa vas “ it is W
latter end of May. On its first appearance | ae ea :
f th feeding on the grassy borders of the small pools and lakes in the morasses ; on being
oO e genus, Ie parks

ee ote fi ik ipe, uttering the notes
listurbed it soars to a great height in the air, rising and falling suddenly Its ae Snipe ae i
a o ‘ hicl idl ete As the weather becomes warm its habits totally change—skulking
1 which are rapl Pee : od withi é é v
ia ; , ; 4 ad grass, and allowing itself to be followed within a few yards, and, when
and creeping through the dec 7 , ff leceere to lay its eggs later than others of this tribe
. ° re on. c 5
flushed, dropping again a short distance eee heen oe
i d i ane some not sat upon on the 24th of June ; and the last i a Hie i es f th
enerally do. : ‘ s nest, like that of the
: bl ys fly—a period when all the other Sandpipers are on the move south. Its nest, lk
unable to fly—