BLACK-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 20J 



are extremely small, very slightly curved, compressed, and 

 blunt. 



The plumage is soft and generally blended ; the feathers 

 of the head and neck very narrow and oblong, of the back 

 ovate-oblong, and more compact. The wings are very long, 

 with twenty-five quills ; the primaries rapidly graduated, the 

 first being longest; the secondaries incurved, excepting the 

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

 short, doubly emarginate, the two middle feathers being con- 

 siderably longer, and the lateral a little longer than those 

 next to them. 



The bill is black, the iris brown, the feet very dark olive, 

 when dry seeming quite black. The general colour of the 

 upper parts is brownish-grey, each feather having a dusk) - 

 central line ; the sides of the head and neck, the fore part of 

 the latter, and the anterior portion of the sides of the body 

 similar but paler. A greyish white streak from the bill over 

 the eye ; the throat, breast, abdomen, and lower tail-coverts 

 white. The quills and greater coverts are greyish-black, the 

 former with a part of the shaft and a large portion of the 

 webs white, the outer four excepted, the coverts tipped with 

 white. The feathers of the tail are ash-grey, narrowly 

 bordered with paler, the two middle having their inner web 

 blackish-brown. The upper tail-coverts are blackish, except 

 the three outer on each side, which are white. 



Length to end of tail 7^- inches ; extent of wings 14-^ ; 

 bill along the ridge 1^, along the edge of lower mandible 

 1^5- ; wing from flexure 4^ ; tail 2^- ; tarsus 1 ; first toe 

 -j^T, its claw a half- twelfth ; second toe -j^, its claw -^ ; third 

 toe |4, its claw -^ ; fourth toe -^, its claw -f 2 T . 



Female. — The female resembles the male in colour, but 

 is considerably larger. In old birds there is scarcely any 

 difference between the males and females, but in younger 

 individuals the males have the markings darker. The fol- 

 lowing are the dimensions of the digestive organs of the 

 specimen selected for description. Tongue eleven-twelfths 

 long ; oesophagus three inches and two-twelfths in length ; 

 stomach elliptical, nine-twelfths long, seven-and-a-half- 



