RALLID Ai. 437 
and sides of the neck white, with a slight tinge o 
buff on the fore part; sides of the breast grey; 
breast, belly and under tail-coverts white; flanks 
white, with a few longish grey marks; the legs and 
toes are yellowish brown. As the winter draws on 
the dark feathers on the upper parts and the slight 
buff tinge on the white of the lower parts disappear 
and are replaced by the grey above and the white 
below. I believe the autumnal change is by moult, 
and the spring change by a different secretion of 
the colouring matter. 
The eggs are of “a stone colour, tinged with olive, 
spotted and speckled with dark brown.”* Meyer, 
in his coloured plate, makes the ground colour a 
decided olive-green. 
This is the last of the Scolopacide which I have 
been able to include; others may possibly have 
occurred in our county, but the occurrence has not 
come under my notice, nor has it, as far as I am 
aware, been recorded. 
Family Rauuipa. 
The Rallide, the last family but one amongst the 
large Order of Waders, is a very small one, con- 
taining only six British species, five of which may 
be included in this list of Somersetshire birds. It 
* Yarrell, vol. ii1., p. 99. | 
2P3 
