8 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Sandpipers examined, one from Jeddah and one from Manilla 

 showed no signs of moult, but one from Madagascar, 

 unfortunately without a date, had feathers coming in on the 

 back, while the breast was heavily in moult ; the primaries 

 were old, faded, and rather worn, the secondaries looked fresh, 

 but the secondary coverts were old, new lesser wing-coverts 

 were coming in, and the tail feathers, with the exception of the 

 outer pair, were partly in quill. A female Common Sandpiper 

 procured in Uganda on 31st July 1906 had the feathers of the 

 back very much worn, in many cases so much so that, at tne 

 terminal part, the shaft only was left ; the primaries were 

 slightly worn, the secondaries looked new, and some of the 

 tertiaries were fresh and some old. With the exception of the 

 centre pair, the tail feathers looked new. This is not a date at 

 which one would expect to find this species as far south as 

 Uganda, and it would be interesting to know if this was a 

 very early migrant or a non-breeding bird that had 

 summered in its winter quarters. 



The Wood Sandpiper {Ti'inga glareola) is another species 

 which was moulting in November : of three birds got iii 

 Uganda in November 1910 an adult male showed moult on 

 back and crop and heavy moult on all the under parts, 

 including the sides and flanks ; the primaries and secondaries 

 were old, some fresh feathers were growing in among the old 

 coverts, there were one or two fresh tertiaries, and some 

 almost wholly in quill ; the tail looked fresh, and there was 

 a good deal of moult in the upper tail-coverts. A female 

 was moulting heavily on the back, upper tail-coverts, and 

 breast ; in the right wing the first five primaries and the four 

 inner secondaries were old, worn, and faded, the rest fresh; 

 in the left wing only the first four primaries and the three 

 inner secondaries were old, the rest and the tail fresh. The 

 other bird got during this month was a male, with the white 

 axillaries said to be characteristic of immaturity ; its 

 plumage was faded and worn but showed no sign of moult. 

 A fourth bird from Uganda, a female, procured on 9th 

 October 1910, also proved interesting. Some of the upper 

 tail-coverts were in quill, the whole underside was heavily in 

 moult, the first three primaries were old, the rest of the 



