230 TRINGA MINUTA. 



Scandinavia in summer, no authentic instance of its occur- 

 rence in Scotland has hitherto been recorded. It is men- 

 tioned, however, as having been observed in the neighbour- 

 hood of Montrose ; and in January 1849, a small flock, 

 probably of this or the next species, was seen near the mouth 

 of the Don, by my son Paul, who is well acquainted with our 

 shore birds. Several flocks of very small Tringae have re- 

 peatedly been seen on the sandy coast of Aberdeenshire. 

 From one of them, an individual was shot by Mr. Peppe, in 

 the autumn of 1841, and presented to me, in a prepared 

 state, by Dr. Dickie, who also informed me that his brother 

 saw a flock, in August of the same year, but failed to secure 

 any. This specimen may be described as follows : — 



Bill shorter than the head, straight, slender, black ; feet 

 brownish-black. Tail doubly emarginate, the outer tail- 

 feathers on each side being longer than the next. Upper 

 part of the head brownish-black, the feathers margined with 

 pale greyish-red ; forehead and a band from it on each side 

 over the eye greyish-white ; loral spaces greyish-brown ; hind 

 part and sides of neck pale grey, faintly streaked with 

 darker ; feathers of the back, wing-coverts, and scapulars 

 brownish-black, margined with light red, changing to reddish- 

 white toward the end of some of the scapulars ; those of the 

 hind part of the back greyish-black, as are the middle tail- 

 coverts ; the lateral white. Primary quills and their coverts 

 greyish-black ; shafts of the primaries white, as are the outer 

 margins of the inner six ; an oblique band of white including 

 the bases of the inner primaries, and extending on the secon- 

 daries so as to include the greater part of the ninth, white ; 

 the remaining inner secondaries like the scapulars ; the tips 

 of the first row of small coverts also white ; the two middle 

 tail-feathers blackish-grey, margined at the end with greyish- 

 red ; the rest ash-grey, very narrowly margined with white ; 

 the outer paler. Throat white ; fore-neck and sides of breast 

 reddish-white, the latter variegated with broAvn ; the rest of 

 the lower parts white, some of the feathers on the sides with 

 small faint grey markings ; the lower wing-coverts partly 

 dusky; axillar feathers white. It appears to be a young 

 bird in its first autumnal plumage. 



