UMICOXA H 6MÆA
LIMICOLA PY
Broad-billed Sandpiper.
Numenius pygmaus, Lath Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 713.
pusilhis, Bechst. Nalurg. Deutschl., tom. iv. p. 15-2.
Tringa platyrhyncha, Temm. Man. d’Orn., 2nd edit., tom. ii. p. 616.
eloriodes, Vi ‘ill Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxxiv. p. 466.
— •— pygmaa, Orn. Tosc., tom. ii. p. 291.
Limicola pygtiuM, Koch, Baier. Zool., tom. i. p. 315.
Pelidna platyrhyncha, Cuv., Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and.
T he bird row under consideration is not a regular migrant, and hence it must be classed among our
accident»! visitors. On the Continent it is more common, dwelling in its southern portions during winter,
and : in summer to Norway, Sweden, and Lapland, to breed and rear its young. O f all the Sandpipers
it k probably the one which approaches most nearly to the Scolopacidce ; and although quite distinct in
structure from the little Ja ck Snipe, it strongly reminds us of that bird, in its small size and general
contour, and also in some o f its habits. M. Godefroy Lunel, Conservator of the Museum o f the
Academy o f Geneva, has published, in the first volume o f the ‘ Bulletin de la Société Ornithologique
Suisse,’ a very carefully written account o f its peculiarities, which is too lengthy for entire transcription,
but from which I shall venture to give a translation o f the less technical portion.
“ The broad-billed Sandpiper appears in the environs of Montpellier every year during the earlier part
o f August, when a few isolated individuals are captured in the nets laid by the bird-catchers in the neighbourhood
o f the marshes. By their means I have had opportunities o f examining numerous specimens,
both dead and living, and o f making mvself acquainted with the remarkable structure o f the beak, whence
it obtained »«»*» of its specific names. It is soft and flexible throughout its entire length, depressed
and slighiiv bent towards the point, with » lateral furrow extending nearly to the tip o f each mandible.
The two branches o f the inferior maxillary are completely ossified in their anterior third, and are
contiguous for the remainder o f their length, but not united. The skin of the chin, which embraces the
base o f the beak and the t riangle formed by the bifurcation o f the base of the lower mandible, is square
a t the top o f the throat, devoid o f 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. I t is small in young birds, but appears to increase in size as they advancefjpage.”
I find only three instances recorded o f the bird’s appearance in our Islands, namely, two in England, and
one in Ireland. The first o f the English specimens was killed on the muddy flats o f Breydon Broad,
in Norfolk, on the 25th o f May, 1836 ; the second, near Shoreham, in Sussex, in October, 1845. The
Irish example was killed on the oozy banks o f Belfast Bay, on the 4th o f October, 1844, with eleven
Golden Plovers and seven o r eight Dunlins, a t one shot from a swivel-gun.
The late Mr. Wheelwright says :—“ Till within the last few years the Brora-billed Sandpiper appears
to have been entirely overlooked in Sweden ; but I do not think it is so very rare there. Twelve years
ago I shot three specimens in August, in the very south o f the country ; since then I have shot the
bird in Wermland ; and now I have taken the nest in Luleâ, Lapland. O f all the Sandpipers this certainly
is the most unobtrusive and the shiest in its habits ; and its custom o f creeping among the grass, like a
little mouse, causes it to be very seldom seen. When flushed, which is never until you nearly tread upon
it, it rises with a faint single rnH~note, flies for a very little distance, then suddenly drops; and it is next to
impossible to get it up a second time without a dog. I only found one neist, in a high-fell meadow.”
Mr. Dann informed Mr. Y»m-U \ ha » “ this Sandpiper is by no means uncommon during the breeding-
season in Lulea, and Tornea Lapmark, frequenting grassy morasses and swamps, in small colonies, generally
in the same places as those frequented by the Wood-Sandpiper. It breeds also at Fogstuen, on the Dovre-
fjeld mountains (about three thousand feet above the level of the sea), in Norway, where it arrives at the
latter end of May. On its first appearance it is wild and shy, and similar in its habits to the other species
o f the genus, feeding on the grassy borders o f the small pools and lakes in the morasses ; on being
disturbed it soars to a great height in the air, rising and falling suddenly like the Snipe, uttering the notes
too tehee, which are rapidly repeated. As the weather becomes warm its habits totally change—skulking
and creeping through the dead grass, and »Bowing itself to be followed within a few yards, and, when
flushed, dropping again a short distance off. It seems to lay its eggs later than others of this tribe
generally do. I found some not sat upon on the 24th o f J u n e ; and the last week in July the young were
unable to fly—a period when all the other Sandpipers are on the move- south. Its nest, like that o f the