HBTERACTITIS. 1 25 



107. HETERACTITIS BREVIPES (Vieillot). 



POLYNESIAN TATTLEE. 



Totanus brevipes Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Xat. (1816), 6, 410. 

 Heteractitis brevipes Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 54'9; Hand- 

 List (1899), 1, 161; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 26. 



Bantayan {McGregor) ; Batan (McGregor) ; Basilan {McGregor) ; Bohol 

 {Everett, McGregor) ; Cagayancillo {McGregor) ; Calayan (McGregor) ; Cebu 

 {Everett, McGregor) ; Cuyo (McGregor) ; Leyte (Everett) ; Lubang (McGregor) ; 

 Luzon CWhitehead) ; Malanipa (Murray); Mindanao (Steere Exp., GoodfeEoic) ; 

 Negros (Steere Exp., Bourns d Worcester) ; Palawan (Platen, White) ; Siquijor 

 (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester) ; Ticao (McGregor). Eastern Siberia; in 

 ■winter China to Malay Archipelago and Australia. 



''Adult male in winter plumage. — Above uniform ashy gray, with 

 slightly indicated light ashy margins; scapulars like the back; lower 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts purer gray than the back, with distinct 

 whitish edges; the long upper tail-coverts with subterminal dusky bars; 

 wing-coverts like back, with paler margins, greater series margined with 

 white; primary-coverts and quills blackish, externally washed with ashy 

 and fringed with white, inner secondaries ashy gray like the back, fringed 

 with whitish; tail-feathers uniform ashy, with narrow whitish margins; 

 head and neck like back; base of forehead and large supra-loral spot 

 white, extending in a narrow streak above the eye; lores blackish; sides 

 of face and ear-coverts white; the upper edge of the latter ashy gray; 

 cheeks and under surface of body pure white, with a shade of ashy gray 

 over the fore neck and chest ; sides of breast and flanks also ashy gray, as 

 well as the outer aspect of the thighs ; under wing-coverts and axillars ashy 

 gray, fringed with white at the ends ; quills below ashy, lighter along the 

 inner edged. 'Bill blackish gray, light brownish gray at base of lower 

 mandible ; feet light ocher-yellow, joints with a faint greenish tinge ; iris 

 dark brown . ' ( .S' ^ ejn eger.) Length, 223; wing, 162. 



''Adult female in winter plumage. — Similar to the male. 'Bill black, 

 grayish yellow at base ; feet dirty chrome-yellow; claws black.' {Everett.) 

 Length, 229; culmen, 37; wing, 157; tail, 71; tarsus, 32. 



''Young in winter phimage. — Differs from the winter plumage of the 

 adults in having the wing-coverts, scapulars, and back mottled with white 

 dots on the outer webs of the feathers. 



"The adult birds appear to molt into winter plumage after quitting 

 their summer haunts for southern latitudes, arriving with worn and 

 abraded feathers, but with the barred under surface of the breeding dress. 



''Adult male in breeding plumage. — Resembles the winter plumage as 

 regards the upper surface of the body being entirely ashy gray, but differs 

 in the coloring of the lower surface, which is profusely spotted and 

 ban-ed. The throat is white, but tlie cheeks, lower tliroat, and fore neck 

 are spotted and streaked with dusky blackish ; the cliest and breast, as 



