316 WEB-FOOTED BIRDS. 



marshes, or upon rocks, making a coarsely interlaced nest of 

 the surrounding moss and herbage, laying 2 or 3 very 

 pointed eggs of a greyish-olive, marked with a small number 

 of blackish spots. 



Length (excluding the central tail feathers) 18 inches; long tail 

 feathers 9^ inches ; wing 15 inches ; bill from above 1 inch 7 lines ; 

 tarsus about 2 inches. — Summer plumage (male;) with the head, 

 neck, under eye-lid, a patch at the corner of the mouth, back, wings 

 and tail, brownish-black ; flanks and sides of the breast blotched 

 with the same. Shafts of the quill and tail feathers white, except at 

 their tips. Necfc straw yellow. Auriculars, chin, throat, breast and 

 belly white. Vent and under tail coverts blackish-brown. Bill dark 

 brown, tipped with black. Legs and feet black ; a broad band of 

 pale lead color on the leg below the knee.* Tail slightly rounded. 

 Tarsus covered posteriorly by rough angular scales, resembling those 

 of some pine cones; anteriorly the lower two thirds are acute, and 

 covered by strong keeled scales, very different from those of L. j>ar' 

 asitica, in which the anterior scales resemble those of a Gull. 



In the adult bird of Temminck, the neck is of a golden yellow, 

 and there is upon the breast a wide collar formed of brown spots. 

 In birds of middle age^ according to the same author,, the whole body 

 is of a dark brown ; the long neck feathers yellowish-brown ; the 2 

 long tail feathers shorter than in the adult ; the bill and feet as in 

 the adults, (male and female.) 



The young of the year, are in general dull or blackish-brown, varied 

 with rufous edgings and crescents ; transverse zig-zags of the same 

 on the belly and flanks. Tail coverts above and below striped with 

 wide blackish and rufous bands. Base of the bill greenish-blue, the 

 point black. Feet bluish-ash, the base of the toes and webs white, 

 the rest black. Hind nail white. The long tail feathers not exceed- 

 ing the rest more than half an inch. 



* Given for the first time in Audubon's excellent figure, which I have seen. 

 Does this character really exist in the European specimens ? 



