376 SCOLOPACID^. 



spring. The beak is straight and nearly black ; the irides 

 brown ; the top of the head and back of the neck ash-brown, 

 streaked with dusky ; scapulars and feathers of the back ash- 

 brown, some assuming a deep black colour in the centre 

 and becoming rufous on the edges ; wing-coverts ash-brown, 

 edged with greyish-white ; primaries dusky-black with 

 white shafts ; secondaries dusky-brown with minute tips of 

 white ; tertials dusky -brown, margined with ash-grey ; upper 

 tail-coverts white ; two middle tail-feathers pointed, longer 

 than the others, and dark brown ; the rest ash- brown ; chin 

 white ; cheeks, sides of the neck, and upper part of the 

 breast, greyish-white, speckled with dusky ; axillary plume 

 white ; belly and under tail-coverts also white ; legs, toes, 

 and claws almost black, tinged with green. 



The whole length of the adult male is seven inches and 

 a half. From the carpal joint of the wing to the end of the 

 first quill-feather, which is the longest, four inches and three- 

 quarters. The female is a trifle larger and more richly 

 coloured. In its winter plumage, which is grey, Bonajjarte's 

 Sandpiper may be distinguished from the Dunlin by its 

 conspicuously white rump, by the total absence of any black 

 spots on the breast, and by a more defined white eye-streak. 



