LITTLE STINT. 395 



edged and tipped with white ; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 dark brown, edged with dull reddish-brown ; tail-feathers 

 ash-grey, margined with buify- white; chin, breast, and all 

 the under surface pure white, with the exception of a dusky 

 band across the bottom of the neck in front ; axillary plume 

 white at all seasons ; legs, toes, and claws nearly black. 



Young birds of the year, in their first autumn, have the 

 feathers of the upper surface of the body ash-brown rather 

 than black, in the middle, with broad margins of bufty- 

 white, which soon become almost pure white. 



The adult bird in winter plumage is seldom seen in this 

 country, but in examples from North Africa and from Cape 

 Colony have the head and neck ash-grey, the central line of 

 each feather being a little darker than the margin ; back, 

 wingcoverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts ash-colour, the 

 shaft of each feather forming a decided dark line ; primary 

 and secondary quill-feathers as in autumn ; tertials ash- 

 brown, with lighter-coloured margins; tail-feathers ash- 

 grey, with narrow white edges ; all the under surface of 

 the body as in autumn ; beak, irides, legs, toes, and claws, 

 also as in the autumn. 



The nestling has already been described, and a coloured 

 figure of it is given on the same plate with the young of 

 the Dunlin and Temminck's Stint, in Mr. Dresser's great 

 work, ' The Birds of Europe,' vol. viii. pi. 550. 



