LITTLE SANDPIPER. 231 



Length. 5\± inches ; wing from flexure 3-^- ; bill -£j- ; 

 bare part of tibia -^ ; tarsus -pj ; middle toe -^j, its claw 1 1 J . 



Mr. Thompson marks it " a regular autumnal visitant to 

 Ireland, appearing in extremely limited numbers ;" and gives 

 several instances of its occurrence in Belfast Bay, and other 

 parts of that country. 



Young. — Two specimens from the south of England, 

 which I have examined, agree with the young in their first 

 plumage, as described by M. Temminck, being as follows : — 

 The bill and feet black. The feathers on the upper part of 

 the head brownish-black, edged with greyish-yellow ; the 

 loral space brownish-grey ; the forehead and cheeks whitish, 

 as is a streak over the eye. The hind-neck pale yellowish- 

 grey streaked with brown ; the fore part of the neck at the 

 sides similar ; the throat and all the lower parts white ; the 

 lower marginal wing-coverts alone being dusky, with white 

 edges. The feathers of the upper parts are blackish-brown, 

 edged with yellowish-red, the outer margins of the scapulars 

 reddish-white. The quills are brownish-black, the larger 

 coverts tipped with yellowish-white ; the inner secondaries 

 like the scapulars. The middle tail-feathers similar, the rest 

 brownish-grey, edged with white. 



It is to the bird in this state that Montagu's description 

 of the Little Sandpiper, in the Supplement to his Ornitho- 

 logical Dictionary, belongs : — " Length about six inches. Bill 

 and irides dusky. The forehead and cheeks round the eyes 

 very pale, nearly white ; throat and all beneath white, except 

 across the breast, where it is mixed with light brown ; the 

 crown of the head, back, scapulars, and coverts of the wings 

 dusky black, more or less margined with pale rufous, but 

 the margins of some of the scapulars nearly white. These 

 marginated feathers give the bird a spotted appearance. The 

 back of the neck brown, mixed with cinereous ; the quills 

 and greater coverts dusky, very slightly tipped with white ; 

 the coverts more largely and the primaries externally mar- 

 gined with white, except the two first ; the shaft of the first 

 quill white. The middle feathers of the tail are, like the 

 tedials, dusky, bordered with fenuginous ; the others cine- 

 reous, palest on the margins. The legs dusky." 



