344 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



commented on by others. The bird has short legs and feathered 

 feet, in which the three toes— the hind toe is absent— are 

 together and padded beneath, rather suggesting the foot of 

 a rabbit. It walks awkwardly, with short steps. Like its 

 relatives, the pigeons, it is a thirsty bird, drinking saline as 

 well as fresh water. Seeds and shoots of all kinds of low- 

 growing herbage are its food, of the salt-marsh type in its 

 native haunts, but in Britain various grasses, clovers, and 

 weeds are known to have been sampled by the analysis of 

 stomach contents. 



The nest is a hollow scraped in sand or loose soil, seldom 

 with more than a few bents by way of lining or decoration. 

 The eggs, usually two or three in number, are stone-brown or 

 buff, speckled and blotched with darker brown (Plate 153), and 

 the nestling in down is pale buff, streaked and speckled with 

 a lace-work pattern of brown and black. 



Both male and female are sandy brown in general colour, 

 and have elongated central tail feathers, though those of the 

 male are the more pointed. The head of the male is sandy 

 grey, his cheeks and chin rusty ; his back is barred with brown, 

 and there is a large buff patch on the wing. The lavender 

 primaries, particularly the first, are very pointed. The breast 

 is greyish buff, crossed by a band of fine black markings ; 

 below the breast is a broad chocolate band. The female has 

 smaller but more numerous markings on the upper parts ; her 

 head is streaked, and she lacks the gorget and buff wing patch. 

 The bill, shaped like that of a game-bird, and the irides, are 

 brown, Male : Length, 17 ins. Wing, io*5 ins. Female : 

 Length, 1475 ins. "Wing, 9 ins. Tarsus i in. 



