THE SNIPE-TATTLERS. 307 



colour, with tiny streaks of dusky-brown ; lores dusky-brown ; 

 cheeks and under surface of body light cinnamon-rufous, with 

 a few dots of dusky black, mostly on the sides of the upper 

 breast, the sides of the body with dusky-blackish bars ; under 

 tail-coverts again spotted ; axillaries white, barred with blackish; 

 under wing-coverts also white, barred with horse-shoe markings 

 of blackish ; bill dark olive ; feet light yellowish-olive ; iris red- 

 dish-hazel. Total length, 10 inches; culmen, 2*2 ; wing, 5*5 ; 

 tail, 2-o; tarsus, 1-3. 



Adult Female. — Similar to the male in colour, but apparently 

 with a longer bill. Total length, 1 1 inches ; culmen, 2*9 ; wing, 

 5*65; tail, 1-9; tarsus, 1-15. 



Adult Male in "Winter Plumage. — Uniform ashy-grey above, with 

 a few blackish shaft-lines on the feathers of the mantle ; wing- 

 coverts darker brown than the back, and fringed wdth white ; 

 quills as in the summer plumage ; centre of the back white ; the 

 lower back, rump, and upper tail coverts white, barred with 

 black, the bars not always transverse, but sometimes horse-shoe- 

 shaped ; tail barred with black and white, the bars complete on 

 the centre tail-feathers, but somewhat broken up and irregular 

 on the other ones ; crown of head and hind-neck uniform ashy- 

 brown ; lores and sides of face dull ashy, with a tolerably broad 

 streak of white above the lores, minutely streaked with dusky ; 

 the sides of the face also with dusky streaks ; throat, chest, and 

 sides of the body white, with dusky streaks on the former and 

 small bars on the latter, the lower throat and fore-neck shaded 

 with ashy ; lower breast and abdomen pure white, unspotted ; 

 under tail-coverts white with distinct black spots; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries white, with black spots on the former, the 

 greater series with bars of an irregular form, the cross-markings 

 on the axillaries broken up into spots and irregularly shaped 

 bars,' some of which are sub-marginal. 



Young Birds. — Are like the winter plumage of the adults, but 

 are very much darker ashy-brown ; the feathers of the back black, 

 edged with rufous, before which is a mark of black ; the grey on 

 the throat is altogether darker, and is washed with rufous, and 

 there is a distinct wash of rufous all over the breast and on the 

 under tail-coverts ; the bars on the axillaries are distinct, but 

 are fewer in number than in the adult. 



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