Spotted Redshank*
Scolopate fusca, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 243.
Graet. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 6(»5.
a fJiftel. ibid., tom. i. p. 669.
-jeyfnfabrigieims, Gmel. ibid., tom. i. p. 668.:
Totaimsfiiscu:?, LeisL IVacht zu Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl.* tom. i. p. 47.
- tutians, Bfeiist. Naturg. Deutschl., tom!, iv. p. .227.
n%amiatvs,^6hst. ibid., tom. iv. p . 203;
am ,fkm rn ., Vog. Deutschl:, p. 634. i
—- Rau, Leach, fciat. Cat. of Indig. Mamm., an.cl Birds in BritJSdus., p. 31
Tringa atra, Lath. lt*d Ora., vol. ii. p. 788. M
Erythrogcelusfuscus, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst., p. 54.
E xtensive as is bur avifauna,and numerous as are the species o f which it is composed, it is in a great
measure made tip o f .migrants which merely pay us .passing visits as they proceed to and return from their
summer and ...winter homes, and accidental yisitors driven out o f their course. Among these the present
bird must be enumerated, i t belongs tb th e Totqni, periiaps the most elegant o f the Sandpipers; for
whether running by the waterside, o r winging tbeir way over the marsh, their actions are preeminently
graceful; their plumage is generally in perfect trim ; and even those which frequent the dirtiest of watercourses
keep their white parts clean and unsullied. The Spotted Sandpiper may be regarded as the chief
o f these interesting b ird s ; for it is of large size and beautifully proportioned. I t is a bird which is subject
to a n unusual number o f changes; and even when fully adult, its dress during summer is remarkftbly different
from that of winter. In .its young state its etttil^ rmder surfhce is ; covered with obscure crescentic lightlegs
and feet are coral-red; while the adult, in '¡;rrimer. has the. head, neck, breast, and under surface
sooty black, with the exception, in some iudividcidv*'# » id1 white at the tip o f each o f the flankfeathers,
and the legs are reddish black. . lW- mrihee is nearly uniform olive-brown and
the under surface all but pure white. Both sex«#are <dikc%n plumage a t all seasons ; and thus the female
is as black as the male in summer, and as white that sex in winter. It is in the young state that it is
most frequently seen in the British Islands ; but many instances are on record of adults having been killed
in the winter dress, and o f some few in the full dress of summer, a t which season the white of the neck and
under surface has given place to sooty black, as shown p b th e front figure o f the accompanying plate. Such
transformations as these are naturally very puzzling to the ordinary observer; and it was only after much
patient research that they became thoroughly known to the scientific ornithologist. Those collectors who are
in the habit o f inspecting the London markets may frequently alight upon a fine example o f this bird, which
has been *un##d out o f a basket sent up from Yarmouth, Ipswich,j or some part o f Lincolnshire; and the
gupners of tin: Norfolk broads, the Suffolk estuaries, the Orwell, the lower Thames, and the Medway often
meet solitary individuals in the months o f August and September, when the bird is on its passage
southwards;-. In spring it is again seen in the same situations, and by the same class o f men, but
less frequently; and th at it comes to our island later in the season is c e rta in ; for Mr. Harting, in his ‘ Birds
of Middlesex,’ states that a fine specimen in lull breeding-plumage was killed at Kingsbury reservoir, in
Ju n e 1841, and is now, he believes, in the “ Boys’ Museum ” at Eton College; th at the bird also visits the
interior o f England in winter, is proved by the record in the same volume o f a specimen in the plumage of
th at season, which had been shot on the Brent in 1849. But I find no recorded instance o f its breeding
either in this country or in Scotland ; both Macgillivray and St. John are silent on the subject; and we
must go fu rth er north if we wish to personally study this part o f the bird’s economy. If, on the o ther hand, we
can be content with a vivid description of it, it is ready to o ur hand from the pen o f the late Mr. John
Wolley, who devoted his whole life to tbe advancement of ornithological science, and who with this view
almost hybernated among the snows of Lapland to witness in spring the arrival there o f so many of our rare
b ird s ; and I shall without hesitation avail myself of Mr. Hewitson’s permission to extract the entire passage
from his valuable ‘ Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds.’
“ It is with much pleasure,” says Mr. Hewitson, “ that 1 am enabled not only to give figures o f tlie eggs o f this
species, hitherto unknown, but also to add the following most interesting particulars kindly sent me by Mr.