188 TRINGA CANUTUS. 



The bill and feet are black ; the head and lower parts are of 

 a delicate light red ; some feathers along the middle of the 

 breast and abdomen white, as are the lower tail-coverts. 

 The axillar and some of the hypochondrial feathers are white, 

 barred with dusky. The upper parts generally are of a 

 beautiful glossy purplish-black, the feathers margined with 

 pale red, and on the hind parts tipped with white, the 

 scapulars and inner secondaries with large spots of red ; 

 those on the rump and the upper tail-coverts white, barred 

 with dusky. The tail-feathers are ash-grey, margined with 

 white. The primaries are greyish-black, their shafts and the 

 outer webs of the inner white ; the secondaries ash-grey, 

 broadly edged with white, except the inner, which are like 

 the back ; the coverts dark grey, edged with greyish- white. 



Habits. — The Ash-coloured Sandpiper appears on our 

 coasts in small flocks in the beginning of September, or even 

 earlier, when the old birds usually retain a portion of the 

 summer plumage. Its flight is rapid, and characterized by 

 the same peculiarities as that of the Dunlin, the birds Avheel- 

 ing off to sea, and performing various evolutions, as they flit 

 along the shore. They run on the sands and muddy flats 

 with great agility, often keeping along the edge of the water, 

 running out when the wave recedes, and again retreating. 

 At other times they are met with in salt marshes, and even 

 in pastures overflowed by the tide. Their food consists of 

 small Crustacea, coleoptera, mollusca, and worms. On some 

 parts of our coast they often form very large flocks in winter ; 

 but they are not nearly so abundant as the Dunlin ; nor are 

 they in general so shy as that species, but frequently, when 

 intent on feeding, allow a person to walk up pretty close to 

 them. They are sometimes sold in our markets, and are 

 not inferior in flavour to the Golden Plover. I have seen 

 this species pretty late in summer, and in 1818 shot one at 

 Aberdeen in its red plumage ; but it has not been found 

 breeding with us. M. Temminck states that it breeds in the 

 northern regions, living in summer in the marshes. I have 

 seen the young in its first plumage in Scotland, and have 

 now before me a specimen from Davis Straits, which is 

 marked as follows. 



