198 TPJNGA MARITIMA. 



Internally the upper mandible is marked with two grooves, 

 and has a central double line of reversed acute papillae. The 

 tongue is very slender, trigonal, tapering, with three papillae 

 on each side at the base, channelled above, eleven-twelfths 

 of an inch long. The fauces are extremely narrow. The 

 oesophagus is three inches and a quarter in length, very 

 narrow ; the stomach a roundish, compressed gizzard, three- 

 fourths of an inch long, its muscles large and distinct. The 

 intestine is fourteen inches long, from two-twelfths to one- 

 twelfth in diameter ; the coeca cylindrical, obtuse, an inch 

 and three-twelfths long. 



The eyes are rather small, their aperture tAvo and a half 

 twelfths in diameter. The nostrils are linear, a twelfth and 

 a half long. The aperture of the ear measures three and a 

 half twelfths across. The feet are short ; the tibia with 

 scarcely any bare space ; the tarsus short, covered before and 

 behind with transverse plates, the anterior twenty-eight ; the 

 first toe very diminutive, with six scutella ; the second with 

 twenty-six, the third with thirty, the fourth with thirty. 

 The claws are short, curved, blunt, much broader than those 

 of Tringa Cinclus. 



The plumage is very soft and blended ; on the upper part 

 glossy. The wings are very long, and reach nearly to the 

 end of the tail ; the quills twenty-five, the first primary 

 longest, the second half a twelfth of an inch shorter, the rest 

 rapidly graduated ; the secondaries incurvate, except the 

 inner four, which are elongated and tapering. The tail is 

 short, the middle feathers a quarter of an inch longer than 

 the three lateral, which are nearly equal. 



The bill is black, its base reddish-orange, especially on 

 the ridge of the upper mandible. The iris is dark brown, 

 the margin of the eyelids white. The feet dark lemon or 

 ochre yellow, the claws black. The head and neck are pur- 

 plish-grey, the throat, a line over the eyes, and the eyelids, 

 white. The back is brownish-black, glossy, with rich purple 

 reflections, the feathers margined with greyish-white. The 

 primary quills are greyish-black, edged with white, of which 

 colour are the shafts also ; the secondaries are white at the 

 base, that colour enlarging so as to include the whole of the 



