CEYLON RAILS, WADERS, GULLS, AND TERNS. 231 
Habits —Feeds in small parties on salt marshes or on the 
ooze round lagoons ; occasionally found in paddy fields near 
the sea, as at Galle, or even further inland. A good many 
barren birds remain with us through the summer months. 
As usual, the birds which thus loiter are in winter plumage, 
though birds which migrate have often assumed most of their 
summer dress before leaving. 
TRINGA TEMMINCKI (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 75 ; 
Legge, p. 892). 
Temminck’s Stint. 
Description —Winter: Upper plumage ashy-gray with 
indistinct darker shaft-stripes, the colour becoming deeper 
towards the rump. The wings and central feathers of the 
tail are dark brown ; the inner primaries, secondaries, and 
greater wing coverts are tipped with white ; shaft of the first 
primary white, of remainder pale brown. The two outer 
feathers on each side of the tail are pure white, as are the 
sides of the rump and upper tail coverts. The lores are 
brown edged above with a faint white streak ; chin, throat, 
and lower parts white with a broad band of brownish-gray 
on the lower foreneck and chest. 
Summer: The upper plumage is darker and mottled with 
black and the edges of the feathers are more or less tinged 
with rufous ; the pectoral band is marked with small dark 
spots. 
Bill black ; iris brown ; legs and feet greenish-olive. 
Length 6; wing 3°75; tail 2; tarsus ‘65; middle toe and 
claw °75; bill from gape °65. 
Distribution.—Obtained once near Trincomalee by Captain 
Legge. Common in Northern India, rare in the south and 
Burma. Breeds in the extreme north of Europe and Asia, 
wintering in Southern Europe, North Africa, and Southern 
Asia. 
Habits —Those of the Little Stint, with which it associates. 
Quite possibly it visits the Island in small numbers regularly, 
passing unnoticed among the swarms of the commoner 
species. 
