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ACTODROMAS MINUTA.
Little Stint.

Tringa minuta, Leis]. Nacht. zu Bechst, N aturg. Deutschl., tom. i. p, 74
cinclus, Pall. Zoog. Ross.-Asiat., tom. ii. pe 20re oe

pusilla, Wolf et Meyer, Taschenb. Deutschl, Vog., tom. ii p. 391

Temminckit, Koch, Baier. Zool., tom. i. p- 292. =

Pelidna minuta, Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 979.

pusilla, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., p. 666.

Actodromas minuta, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 55.

 

 

 

 

a ee

AutHoueH this pretty species of Sandpiper has been very frequently killed in England and repeatedly in

Ireland, its presence can never be looked for with certainty; moreover it does not br

| eed with us; for
though specimens occur in the red or nuptial dress,

they are merely en route to the northern regions to
ountries almost unknown to us, the only record I find
of their breeding in any place being that mentioned by Dr. David Walker in his “Notes on
‘The Fox,’” who says, ‘The winter of 1858-59 was spent

deposit their eggs and rear their little progenies in ¢

on the Voyage of
at Port Kennedy, in the mouth of Bellot Straits,
72° II'N., 94° W. Early in June numbers of Tringa minuta and T. wnterpres were found bre

marshy valleys.” It is indeed most remarkable that (with this exception, if Dr. Walker is
identity of the species seen by him) the true incubating home of a bird which ranges over Europe, the
whole of Africa, Asia Minor, Persia, India, China, and Japan should not have been discovered.

With regard to the connexion of the Little Stint with our avifauna, Mr. Yarrell says :—‘* The species was
first mentioned by Pennant as a British Bird from a specimen killed in Cambridgeshire, and is most frequent
on the southern and eastern shores of this country. Indeed, from the eastern localities comprised
within the geographical range of this bird, it is probable that it seldom comes so far westward as the
British Islands, when on its way, in the spring, to the high northern latitudes in which a portion of them
every year produce their young.” He then proceeds to mention that the appearance of both old and young
birds in autumn in the vicinity of the Solway has several times been recorded, that it has occurred in the
western part of Lancashire, that from forty to fifty were seen on the Laira mud-banks near Plymouth in
October 1840, that the bird has been frequently observed on the coast of Sussex, that he had obtained them

eding in the
correct as to the

in the London markets in the summer and winter plumage, but most frequently in that of autumn (when,
indeed, they are more common than at any other period of the year), that a flock of thirty was seen in
Romney Marsh, 1839, and that they are numerous on the coasts of Saffolk, Norfolk, Yorkshire, and Durham,

" but are not so often killed in the more northern counties. ‘They are most frequently found on the sandy

shores of the sea, and generally in company with the Dunlin or the Sanderling, or both, as they fly in small
and sometimes in large flocks together. They select for food aquatic insects, small crustacea, worms, and
mollusks.”

According to Mr. Rodd it is occasionally seen in Cornwall, and specimens obtained from salt marshes
near the sea, Marazion marsh and Hayle estuary.

Neither Sir William Jardine nor MacGillivray met with the bird in Scotland; and although Thompson
says it is a regular autumnal visitant to Ireland, it appears there in extremely limited numbers. More
recently, however, it has been stated that a specimen was obtained at Fraserburgh in September 1854 ;
and the Rey. F. O. Morris mentions that one was killed by William Strang, Esq., in Orkney in 1837, and
another seen by him in 1848.

Temminck says that in its passage it visits the borders of the rivers in Germany and France, and in
autumn is to be found on the great marshes of Holland, but rarely on its maritime coasts, that it is
very common on the lake of Geneva and occurs in great numbers on the salt marshes of Dalmatia in
August and September in the garb of winter, and that those seen’ on their passage through France are
in their perfect nuptial plumage. Nilsson states it is found in Sweden from spring to autumn ; but
Mr. Dann informed Mr. Yarrell that it is by no means common there, and that the only ee he met
with were in autumn, in the flooded grounds on the banks of rivers and lakes, where, on being approached,
they squat down and allow you to advance within a few feet of them. Mr. Selby mentions that he had

Soe ees , Dr. Henr
received specimens in almost perfect plumage from Italy, where it has also been observed by y

Giglioli in the neighbourhood of Pisa.

: ee ric i ave received specimens
Loche mentions it as a bird of passage in Algeria ; and the Zoological Society have P