370 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



from the flesh. Number one represents Mr. Gurney's 

 bird ; number two mj own : — 



No. 1. No. 2. 



Tip of bm to end of) 8 inches and 6-8tli3 ... 7 inches and 7-8ths 



longest tail feather J 

 Wing, carpal joint to-\ 



end of longest pri- > 5 inches and l-8th ... 6 inches* 



mary J 



Bill 1 inch and l-16th ... 1 inch 



Tibia, full length 1 inch and 2-8ths ... 1 inch and 2-8th3 



Tarsus 1 inch and 1-lOth ... 1 inch • 



Middle toe and claw ... 1 inch ... 1 inch and 1-1 6th 



The Lynn bird, like Mr. Gurney's, a female, has the 

 markings on the breast following the shaft of each 

 feather, and is evidently immature, but has a single 

 new feather with rufous edges in the tail, marking the 

 commencement of a spring change, so early even as the 

 9th of January. On the back and shoulders the centre 

 of each feather is blackish brown, edged somewhat 

 broadly with grey, some few having a reddish tinge, 

 but none rufous. Greater-wing coverts slightly red at 

 the edges, and more markedly so the feathers on the 

 head and back of the neck. The measurements of this 

 bird, taken after it was mounted, agree with those of my 

 own rather than Mr. Gurney's, and are identical with 

 those of an immature foreign specimen, in the same state 

 of plumage (No. 246a), in the Norwich Museum. Indi- 

 viduals, therefore, of both sexes, no doubt, vary much 

 in size as is the case so remarkably with the dunlins 

 and some other wader s.f 



* Proportionate length of quills the same in each specimen. 



f As Mr. Newton informs me the dimensions of the two speci- 

 mens given in the above table " are considerably less than those 

 of six given by Cassin in Professor Baird's ' Birds of North 

 America' (p. 721); the largest of these measures 9.32 in. in entire 

 length, and 5.75 in. in that of the wing ; while the smallest, the 

 entire length of which is 8.64 in., or somewhat less than Mr. 



