574 ■ AMERICAN STINT. 



especially at the larger end : specimens in Mr. Dresser's collection 

 measure i by '8 in. Of twenty nests found on the barren-grounds 

 by Mr. MacFarlane, all but six were taken between June 21st and 

 30th. The food consists of earth-worms, small crustaceans and 

 marine insects. The note is a shrill twitter, resembling the syllables 

 peep-peet. 



The adult in breeding-plumage has the feathers on the head and 

 back blackish, slightly edged with rufous ; hind-neck ashy, varied 

 with rufous ; wing-coverts ash-grey, exteriorly margined with buff, 

 greater coverts with white edges, which form an indistinct alar bar ; 

 quills ash-brown, blacker towards their tips, the shafts whitish- 

 brown, with the exception of the outermost which is chiefly white 

 and only dusky towards the extremity; lower back and rump deep 

 black ; tail-feathers pale ash-grey, the middle pair elongated and 

 blackish like the rump ; lores, eyebrows, and sides of the face 

 whitish ; throat white ; chest ashy, mottled with dark brown in 

 the centres of some of the feathers ; rest of the under surface 

 white ; under wing-coverts whitish, some of the lower ones mottled 

 with brown ; bill nearly black ; legs dusky olive-brown ; iris dark 

 hazel. Externally there is no material difference between the 

 sexes. Total length about 5*5 in. ; wing 3 -5 in. In autumn some 

 of the feathers of the back and scapulars have pale grey edges. 

 The winter-plumage is ash-grey above, some of the dorsal feathers 

 being dark purplish-brown in the centre and margined with white ; 

 the lower part of back and the rump are blackish ; the wing-coverts 

 like the back, the greater coverts clearer brown, and indistinctly 

 tipped with white ; rest of the plumage as in summer. The Semi- 

 palmated Sandpiper, T. pusilla, another very common and widely- 

 distributed species in America, may always be distinguished from 

 the present by having the anterior toes webbed at the base. 



