PECTOKAL SANDPIPER. 369 



no means of judgiug whetlier it was in an immature or 

 aclnlt state, but I have lately had the opportunity of 

 comparino" my own and Mr. Gurney's^ examples with a 

 series of foreign skins in Mr. Gould's collection, from 

 which it is easy to trace the gradual changes of plumage 

 in this species from the less conspicuous markings of 

 the young bird in its first autumn to the more defined 

 and richer tints of the adult during the breeding 

 season. Mr. Gurney's bird, as suggested by him, is no 

 doubt in the plumage of its first autumn, and so nearlj' 

 agrees with the description given by Yarrell from a speci- 

 men sent him by Audubon, that I need only add that 

 its general dimensions are larger than in mine, even 

 though the plumage of the latter indicates a far more 

 advanced age. The most striking feature, however, in 

 the plumage of my own specimen consists in the mark- 

 ings on the breast crossing the tips of the feathers in 

 an arrow-head form, reminding one somewhat of 

 Bartram's sandpiper, while in Mr. Gurney's the breast 

 feathers are streaked with dark brown in the line of the 

 shaft of each feather. The rest of the plumage in my 

 own, no doubt a fully adult bird, indicates a rapid state 

 of change between summer and winter plumage, and, 

 from the appearance of the breast, where the arrow- 

 head markings are very irregularly distributed, one 

 might almost infer that these are peculiar to the nuptial 

 dress. The rufous margins to the feathers on the head 

 and back are in mine broader and richer in colour than 

 in Mr. Gurney's, which are light wood brown ; those 

 on the head are more dark brown than chestnut. 



The followmg table gives the comparative measure- 

 ments of these two Norfolk killed examples as taken 

 from the stuffed specimens, both of which were set up 



* It is, I believe, Mr. Gould's intention to figure both these 

 specimens in his " Birds of Great Britain." 

 3 B 



