224 



Limicola platyrhyiicha, Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 3, pi. 545 

 (1876) ; B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 167 (1883) ; Saunders, 

 ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 362 (1883) ; id. Man. Brit. B. 

 p. 563 (1889); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxiv. 



(1893). 

 Adult Male in Winter Plumage. — General colour above light ashy- 

 grey, somewhat paler on the edges of the feathers, which have 

 dusky-brown centres ; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts 

 blackish, with slight remains of sandy-buff fringes ; sides of 

 rump and lateral upper tail-coverts white ; wing-coverts rather 

 darker than the back, the marginal ones dark brown, the 

 median series blackish in the centre with hoary-white margins ; 

 the greater series dusky-blackish, edged with hoary-grey, in- 

 clining to white at the ends, and forming a narrow band across 

 the wing ; bastard-wing and primary-coverts black tipped wiih 

 white, the latter broadly; quills black, paler brown on the 

 inner webs of the primaries, excepting at the tips, which are 

 black ; secondaries merely fringed with white near the ends, 

 and with a little white towards the base of the inner web, the 

 inner secondaries ashy like the back, the shafts of all the 

 quills white or whity-brown ; centre tail-feathers blackish like 

 the upper tail-coverts, the rest ashy-brown with white shafts 

 and white fringes ; crown of head like the back ; the lores 

 dusky, surmounted by a broad white streak which is continued 

 into a narrow eyebrow ; sides of face white with a few tiny 

 streaks of dusky-brown ; ear-coverts uniform dusky-brown ; 

 under surface of body white with a few streaks of dusky-brown 

 on the lower throat and sides of breast ; under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries white, the marginal-coverts mottled with dusky 

 bases ; lower primary-coverts ashy ; bill dusky black ; legs and 

 feet slaty-black ; iris dark brown. Total length, 6-5 inches ; 

 culmen, 1*3; wing, \'\; tail, i*6; tarsus, o-8. 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. — General colour above black, 

 slightly varied with rufous edgings to the feathers, some of 

 those of the mantle, scapulars, inner greater coverts, and 

 inner secondaries having sandy-buff margins, the black form- 

 ing large sub-terminal spots ; crown of the head black, with a 

 sandy-buff lateral stripe; lores black; sides of face rufescent, 

 thickly spotted with dubky-black like the sides of the neck ; the 



