:J4. THINORNIS. 305 



secondaries dark brown, with narrow whitish margins to some 

 of the feathers ; rump and central upper tail-coverts black, the 

 lateral ones white ; centre tail-feathers black, the next ones ashy 

 brown, tipped with white, and with a distinct sub-terminal mark of 

 black, almost obsolete on the penultimate feather, the outermost 

 being pure white ; crown of head brown, slightly varied with darker 

 brown centres, and surrounded by a band of white, not quite so 

 strongly marked round the nape ; forehead, lores, entire sides of 

 face, and throat black, extending over the sides of the neck and 

 forming a collar across the mantle ; remainder of under surface of 

 body pure white, excepting for some brown feathers on the sides of 

 the upper breast and on the outer aspect of the thighs ; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries pure white, the lower primary-coverts grey, 

 like the quill-lining : " legs pale yellow ; iris light red with blue- 

 black centre" (T. Hawkins): "eyelid red; bill orange for more 

 than half its length, then black to the tip ; tarsi and toes orange ; 

 claws black ; iris black " ( W. L. Butter). Total length 7 inches, 

 culmen 1-05, win? 4-7, tail 2-5, tarsus 0-9. 



Adult f emaL . Bather smaller and duller in colour than the male, 

 and with less orange on the bill and feet (IF. L. Butter). 



Young. Differs from the adult in having only the basal part of 

 the bill 3'ellow, and the forehead white like the eyebrow and sides of 

 face ; throat also white instead of black. In a young male obtained 

 by Mr. W. Hawkins in the Chatham Islands in May, the forehead 

 and throat are much dappled with black, apparently signs of the 

 approaching adult plumage. There appear to be no additional 

 sandy margins to the feathers of the upper surface, usual in the 

 immature Sand-Plovers ; but certainly these white-throated birds 

 cannot represent the winter plumage of the species, as black- 

 throated specimens were killed on the same day. 



Sir Walter Buller believes that the type-specimen of Thinornis 

 rossi, from the Auckland Islands, represents the young of T. novas 

 zealand'uv, ; but this is certainly not correct, for the bird in question 

 is quite adult, and must, in my opinion, belong to a distinct species. 



Nestling. Principally sandy-coloured above, with minute spots or 

 freckles of black and greyish white, with an indication of a black 

 line round the nape ; the region of the wing rather more rufous ; 

 entire under surface pure white. 



Hah. New Zealand ; Chatham Islands. 



". !'. Ad. sk. New Zealand. Percy Earl, Esq. 



c-f. d $ ad. et imm. ; Chatham Islands, May. Dr. 11. 0. Forbes rC.l 

 g. Pull. ,-k. 



2. Thinornis rossi. 



Thinornis rossii, Gray, Vm/. En bus V Terror, Birds, p. 1:?. pi. xi*. 

 (1846); id. Gen. B. iii. p. 546 (1847); Bp. C. R. xliii. p. 417 

 i L866); Gray, Ibis, L862, p. 236; Fin*ch,J. f. O. 1870. p. |:;i : 

 Gray, Hand-l, B. iii. p. 17, no. 10023 (1871 ) :' Mutton, Ibis. 1874, 

 p. 84. 

 TOL. \xiv. x 



