394 scoLOPACiD^:. 



or tlie Sandeiiing, or both, as they fly in small, and some- 

 times in large flocks together. They select for food aquatic 

 insects, small Crustacea, worms, and mollusca ; and in the 

 stomachs of some shot on their autumn migration towards 

 the end of August, near Christiania, Mr. Collett found the 

 seeds of an aquatic plant. The note, which is constantly 

 uttered, is a whispering, warbling trill, very different from 

 the louder call of the Dunlin, but stronger and deeper than 

 that of Temminck's Stint ; and the call of a flock is some- 

 thing like the confused chirping of grasshoppers or crickets. 



In its summer plumage the beak is black ; the irides dark 

 brown ; the top of the head and the neck ferruginous, with 

 specks of black ; the feathers of the back, scapulars, wing- 

 coverts, tertials, and upper tail-coverts, black in the centre, 

 with broad ferruginous margins ; broad white tips, forming 

 a conspicuous bar along the lower wing -coverts ; the 

 primaries nearly black at the tips, greyish-black above, 

 with white shafts ; the secondaries greyish-black tipped 

 with white ; the tail, when perfect, doubly forked, the 

 lateral feathers ash-brown, the two central ones black with 

 rufous margins ; the chin, breast, and all the under surface 

 of the body pure white ; sides of the neck, down to the 

 front of the wing, and a band round the front of the neck, 

 ferruginous speckled with black ; axillary plume pure white ; 

 legs, toes, and claws dull black. 



The whole length is six inches ; the beak three-quarters 

 of an inch ; from the carj)al joint of the wing to the end 

 of the first quill-feather, which is the longest, three inches 

 and three-quarters ; the length of the tarsus ten lines and a 

 half. The female is somewhat larger than the male. 



An adult bird in its autumn plumage, killed in Septem- 

 ber, has the beak black ; irides dark brown ; from the base 

 of the beak to the eye, and on the ear- coverts, a brown 

 streak ; above and below the eye greyish-white ; sides and 

 back of the neck ash-grey, streaked with darker grey ; 

 feathers of the back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials 

 nearly black, with broad margins of reddish-brown and bufiy- 

 whitc ; quill-fcathers dusky, with white shafts ; secondaries 



