ACTITIS MACUJLARWS
ACTITIS MACULARIUS.
Spotted Sandpiper.
Tringa macularia, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 249.
Totanos macularias, Temxn. Man. d’Orn. (1815), p. 422.
Actitis macularia, Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 979.
Tringoides macularia, G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. p. 574.
peME ornithologists believe that the Spotted Sandpiper is a> myth, so far as regards the avifauna o f Great
Britain, notwithstanding the most positive assurances o f its capture are given in the works o f Bewick,
\a rre ll, and others. However this may be, as regards England, there seems to be no doubt of its occurrence
in Scotland; for Mr. Gray’s recently published valuable work on the birds o f the western part o f that
country states that authentic instances, the only ones it is true, of this rare bird being found in Scotland
(were communicated to him by his obliging friend and correspondent, Mr. Angus, of Aberdeen, who states
that a male and female were left a t the Aberdeen Museum in August 1867, in the absence of Mr. Mitchell,
who up to the present moment does not know by whom the birds were presented or where they were shot.
Both were in the flesh and had not been long d e ad ; they were prettily marked and somewhat dissimilar
in size, the male being the largest. The female is now in Mr. Angus’s cabinet; the other has been kindly
presented by Mr. Mitchell to M r. Gray, and is now in his collection. With such evidence as this, published
as late as 1871, and presuming that a t least some o f the fifteen occurrences recorded by Mr. Harting in his
‘ Handbook o f British Birds ’ are authentic, we can scarcely assert th at it has never been seen in the British
Islands, especially as we know that the bird, like the common Summer Snipe, is a great wanderer both over
some parts o f Europe and the extensive continent o f America. Nilsson, in his ‘ Fauna o f Scandinavia,’ says
it is often seen in the north o f Europe, and that specimens have been killed in Sweden, on the islands in
the Baltic, and in Gothland. letnminck also refers to it as having been killed in Germany in the
neighbourhood of the Rhnw m<;‘ Meyvr and Wolf and Brehm also include it among the birds o f that country
—a fact which induce* etc to freiteve that the bird does now and then stray over to our island. As regards
America I have reason to believe it is more constant in Texas and the country lying northward from there
to Newfoundland than in auy other part of that continent. I t is also, we know, either an inhabitant or a
migrant over the West Indies and many parts o f South America, Mr. Clarence Bartlett having brought
from Surinam many very beautiful specimens obtained during his short visit to that country.
The works of American ornithologists teem with information respecting the Spotted Sandpiper, the. more
important of which I will take the liberty o f extracting. In th at o f Audubon it is s ta ted:— "T h e Spotted
Sandpijier has a wonderfully extensive ran g e ; for I have met with it, not only in most parts o f the United
States, but also on the shores o f Labrador, where, on "the 17th of June, 1833, I found it breeding. On
the 29th of July the young were fully fledged and scampering over the rocks about us, amid the putrid and
drying cod fob. In that country it breeds later by three months than in Texas ; for on the head waters of
Buffalo Bayou, about sixty miles from the margin o f the Mexican Gulf, I saw broods already well grown on
the 5th of May, 1837. On the same day o f the same month in 1832, a similar occurrence happened on an
island near Indian Key, m the south-east coast o f Florida. In Newfoundland, on the other hand, the young
were ju st fully fledged on the 11th of August. I t appears strange that none were observed by-
Dr. Richardson on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, or in the interior o f that country. They are quite abundant
along the margins of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and their tributaries. On the Island o f Jestico, in the Gulf
o f St. Lawrence, about twenty pairs had nests and eggs on the 11th o f J u n e ; and the air was filled with the
pleasing sound of their voices white we remained there. The nests were placed among the tall slender
grass that covered the southern part of the island. They were more bulky and more neatly constructed
thati auy that I have examined southward o f the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and yet they were not to be
compared with those found in Labrador, where in every instance they were concealed under ledges of
rocks extending for several feet over th em ; so that I probably should not have observed them, had not the
birds flown off as I was passing. These neats were made o f dry moss, raised to the height o f from six to
nine inches and well finished within with slender grasses and feathers o f the Eider Duck. As usual,
however, the eggs were always four when the bird was sitting. They measure an inch and a quarter in
length by an inch a t their thickest p a r t ; so that they have a shortish and bulky appearance, though thev run
almost to a point. They are smooth and handsomely marked with blotches of deep brown, and others of a