112 PLOVER GROUP 



of plants. It may be added that the monosyllabic crj' of the sanderling 

 is utterly different in character from the shrieking call of the dunlin. 

 As regards the nest and eggs, our information is very imperfect, the 

 British Museum up to the year 1902 possessing only two specimens 

 of the latter. The nest is apparently placed on dry ground, and ma\' 

 be lined cither with willow-catkins or with leaves and grass. The two 

 eggs in the British Museum have an olive-buff ground with markings 

 of pale olive-brown, these markings in the one consisting of small, 

 evenly distributed spots and specks, and in the other of larger spots 

 and blotches more thickly concentrated at the larger end than else- 

 where. The two specimens, which came from different localities, agree, 

 however, in the character of the underlying purple markings. The 

 longer diameters of each are respectivel}' 1.33 and 1.37 inches. 



Although the genus Triitga is tj'pically represented 



,_ , . ^ , b\' the knot (to which and an allied species it is re- 



(Tringa mmuta). - . , , • , , • x , , • r , 



stncted by some ornithologists), tlic relations of the 



different species included within it in its wider sense are best displayed 

 by commencing with the stint and its immediate relatives. In this 

 extended sense the genus Tringa may be briefly defined as including 

 a number of small waders characterised by having four toes, of which 

 the three front ones are not connected at the base by webs ; soft flexible 

 slender beaks, of variable length, either straight or slightly bent down- 

 wards, with grooves in each half, and the small nostril situated near 

 the base, nearly square tails in which the middle feathers may be 

 pointed and slightly prolonged beyond the rest, and the lower segment 

 of the legs rather short and covered with shield-like scales. In the 

 long and pointed wings the first quill exceeds the others in length, 

 but the inner .secondary quills nearly equal the primaries in this 

 respect. 



The stint, which, under the name of Limonitcs niiniita, will be found 

 in some ornithological works classed as the typical representative of a 

 separate genus, is a small species characterised by the beak and lower 

 segment of the legs being nearly equal in length, and likewise by the 

 approximate equality in this respect between the lower segment of the 

 leg and the middle toe. In the tail the feathers are of equal length; 

 the wing measures less than 5 inches in length, the shafts of all the 

 primary quills are partially white, and the leg is leaden grey in 

 colour ; the total length of the bird is 6 inches. 



Referring in more detail to the colouring of the species, it may be 

 mentioned that in general colouring the stint is very similar to the 



