PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 369 
no means of judging whether it was in an immature or 
adult state, but I have lately had the opportunity of 
comparing 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 nearly 
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 following 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.” 
3B 
