4-40 SHORT COMMUNICATIONS IBIS 109

A LONGTOED STINT CALZDRZS SUBMZNUTA IN ETHIOPIA

On 6 January 1964 a Long-toed Stint Calidris subminuta was netted at Lake Abyata in the Rift Valley, 150 km. south of Addis Ababa.

This eastern Palaearctic stint was among 560 waders trapped at Abyata, where my chief interest was the palaearctic species wintering on the northern shore (most numerous were Philomachus pugnax, Calidris minuta, Tringa glareola, Tringa stagnatilis, Charadrius asiaticus). At first I mistook it for a C. minuta or a C. temminckii but on re-examining it I noticed with surprise that the stint had a tail like that of C. minuta and wings like C. temminckii. Since it was getting dark, the bird was held over till the next day when I made the following description and measurements :-In size and appearance very like C. minuta but it was darker on upper-parts both on back and crown than all C. minuta I saw at Abyata. Under-parts white, breast shaded dusky. Wing-length 93 mm.-this was shorter than the mean-length of 149 C. minuta at Abyata (97.2mm. ranging from 914-102.0 mm.) and shorter than of two C. temminckii (96 and 97 mm.). The shaft of second primary white, all others brown. No pronounced white wing-bar. Primaries: first minute, second longest, third 1 mm. shorter than second, fourth 2 mm. shorter, fifth 9 mm. shorter, sixth 16 mm. shorter, seventh 22 mm. shorter. Tail 35 mm. Ash-gray outer tail- feathers. Toes very long not webbed, middle-toe 24 mm., back-toe 6 mm. Legs and feet greenish. Bill 18 mm., straight, dark. Iris brown.

The grey outer tail-feathers and the long tarsus was like C. minuta, the wing with only the second primary shaft white and the greenish colour on legs and feet was like C. temminckii. But the most remarkable feature was the long middle-toe. The bird was preserved as a skin by my colleague, Mr. Svante Pohlstrand, taxidermist in Addis Ababa. It proved to be a female and was identified as a Long-toed Stint Calidris subminuta.

Since my return to Sweden I have been able to compare the skin with the collection at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. The specimen from Abyata agrees well with skins of C. subminuta from Mongolia (August) and from the Kuriles (September). The skin is now in the Museum, where Dr. G. Rudebeck kindly verified the identification.

According to Dementiev et al. (1951, Birds of the Soviet Union, Vol. 3), C. subminutu breeds east of the Ural Mountains throughout inland Siberia to the Bering Strait, and also in Kamtchatka. Its main winter quarters are in India, in southeastern Asia and in northern Australia. It also “ visits Ceylon in large numbers every year, but not in such big flocks as C. minuta ” (G. M. Henry 1955, ‘A guide to the birds of Ceylon ’).

This is the first record for Africa.

Tarsus 22 mm.

Domprostgrand 10, Strangnas,

Sweden.

30 November 1966.

LARS BROBERG.

ATTACKS ON FRUIT BUDS BY REDPOLLS CARDUELIS FLAMMEA Stenhouse (1962, ‘ Ibis ’ 104: 250-252) has recorded the newly acquired habit of

Redpolls Carduelisjlammea of attacking fruit blossoms on a large scale in Central Otago, New Zealand, and thereby causing damage of economic importance through reducing the subsequent crop. Although Redpolls were introduced into New Zealand in the latter half of the last century and had become common there by the start of the present century (Stenhouse 1962, ‘ Notornis ’ 10: 61-67), their attacks on fruit blossoms were not recorded until 1951-53, but since then have continued to increase. Stenhouse