378 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
tipped with white; the primaries black, with white 
shafts, but no white spots; breast and belly black, 
a few feathers with white tips; under wing-coverts 
white, with dusky grey shafts; axillary plume pure 
white; under tail-coverts barred black and white ; 
legs and toes dark red, claws black. I do not know 
that a specimen has ever occurred in England in this 
plumage, but only in winter plumage and in a state 
of change. In young birds of the year the upper 
surface of the body is tinged with brown, and the 
white colour of the under surface is clouded with 
ash-erey; the legs are orange-red. My bird above 
described appears to be something between this and 
the adult winter plumage. 
Yarrell, describing the eggs from Hewitson, says 
they are pear-shaped : in one specimen, he says, the 
ground is a rich asparagus-green, with rather nume- 
rous oblong spots of brownish black over the 
broadest part of the egg, with smaller spots of ash- 
grey and reddish brown: in others the ground 
colour is olive-brown. 
Common Repsuank, Totanus calidris. This isa 
much more common species than that last-men- 
tioned, and occurs on our muddy shores and occa- 
sionally inland in the more boggy and swampy 
parts: it generally makes its appearance in the 
spring and autumn, most frequently in the latter ; 
it must, therefore, as far as our county is concerned, 
be considered only as a spring and autumn visitor. 
