WHITE-BREASTED WEET-WEET. 353 



are white, barred with dusky ; the inner become gradually 

 darker. The throat, breast, sides, belly, and lower tail- 

 coverts are white ; the sides and fore part of the neck light 

 brownish-grey, streaked with dusky, each feather having a 

 triangular tip of that colour. 



Length to end of tail 8^ inches ; extent of wings 14 ; bill 

 along the ridge lfa, along the edge of lower mandible 1 T 2 ^ ; 

 wing from flexure 4-fa ; tail 2 fa ; tarsus -Li ; first toe fa, its 

 claw fa ; second toe -fa, its claw -f^; third toe \%-, its claw 

 ■fa ; fourth toe fa, its claw -fa. 



Female. — The female is precisely similar to the male. 



Variations. — I have not observed any remarkable vari- 

 ations in colour or size in adult individuals. 



Changes of Plumage. — As the bird is only a summer 

 resident, and departs in autumn, before much progress has 

 been made in moulting, I am unable to describe its winter 

 plumage. Towards the end of the season of its sojourn, the 

 leathers are often very ragged, and the glossy brown of the 

 upper parts has considerably faded. 



Habits. — This elegant little bird arrives in England 

 about the middle of April, and in the south of Scotland 

 towards the end of that month, betaking itself immediately 

 to the sandy or gravelly shores of lakes and rivers, where it 

 procures its food, and remains until its departure in Sep- 

 tember. The species is generally distributed, being found in 

 all the northern districts of Scotland, and in all the larger 

 Hebrides, as well as in most parts of England and Wales ; 

 but the individuals never congregate, although a brood and 

 their parents, amounting to six, or occasionally two or three 

 families, may be seen keeping together in the end of summer. 

 In August and September some may be met with on the 

 sea-shore, and especially on that of the muddy estuaries of 

 our rivers ; but the species is decidedly lacustrine and fluvia- 

 tile, and is nowhere more plentiful than on the pebbly shores 

 of the Highland lakes. 



