136 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Temniinck's Stint. EroUa tcininlncki (Leisler). 



Temminck's Stint (Plate 55), even in autumn, is a rarer 

 passage migrant than the Little Stint ; it is more frequent on 

 the south and south-east coast than elsewhere, though it has 

 occurred in most parts of our islands, even in May on Fair 

 Island. It nests in Arctic Europe and Asia, and winters in 

 northern Africa and southern Asia. 



Temminck's Stint is slightly smaller than the Little Stint, 

 and at all seasons much greyer ; its outer tail feathers are 

 white. Its habits on the shore, its food — insects and their larv?e 

 inland or in the tide wrack, or crustaceans, worms, and other 

 marine animals on the sand or mud — and its quick, erratic 

 flight, resemble those of the other species. Its note is 

 described by Seebohm as " a spluttering but very distinct 

 pt-7--r-r.^^ Mr. A. H. Patterson points out that its call, and its 

 habit of towering when flushed, are well known to east coast 

 wildfowlers, rare though the bird is. In its summer haunts it 

 has a trilling song, a modification of the distinctive call. 



The summer dress is greyish brown with darker streaks and 

 spots, but with a few chestnut bars and margins on the upper 

 parts. Except at its dusky tip the outer primary is white ; the 

 others are brownish grey ; a narrow bar crosses the wing. 

 The buff breast is streaked, the rest of the under parts white. 

 The bill is black, the legs olive, the irides dark brown. The 

 winter dress is ashy with indistinct dark markings and pale 

 margins ; the breast is unstreaked. The feathers of the upper 

 parts in young birds are tipped with white, and the under parts 

 are suffused with buff. Length, 575 ins. Vv^ing, 3*8 ins. 

 Tarsus, o"6 in. 



