LITTLE STINT. 393 



Temminck's Stint are quite grey compared with the red- 

 dish-brown of the young of the Dunlin. The young in 

 down of the Little Stint are still redder, especially on the 

 sides and the back of the neck. On the 27th July Harvie- 

 Brown walked over to the other side of the little inland sea, 

 and found two more nests of the Little Stint, each con- 

 taining four eggs. These nests were on different ground. 

 They were not on the tundra properly so called, but on the 

 feeding-ground, flat land covered with sand, upon which 

 short grass and bunches of a thick-leaved yellow-flowered 

 plant were growing, abounding also with little lakes and 

 pools. The real tundra is about 150 yards from the water's 

 edge in this place ; and the feeding-ground lies between, 

 scattered over with drift wood of all sorts. The behaviour 

 of the birds at these two nests was exactly the same as at 

 the previous ones. 



" The average size of the twenty egga we obtained of the 

 Little Stint is about 1-j^ x f inch, a trifle smaller than 

 the eggs of Temminck's Stint usually are. The ground- 

 colour varies from pale greenish-grey to pale brown. The 

 spots and blotches are rich brown, generally large, and some- 

 times confluent at the large end. They probably go through 

 every variety to which Dunlins' eggs are subject. All the 

 Little Stints' eggs which we found, with one exception, 

 which would probably be a barren one, were very much 

 incubated." 



Since this discovery, the eggs of the Little Stint have been 

 taken by Henke near Archangel (Ibis, 1882, p. 381), and 

 by Mr. E. Rae, in the Kola Peninsula ; and Mr. R. Collett 

 has given an account of its breeding in Northern Norway 

 (J. f. Orn. 1881, pp. 323-332). Dr. Finsch obtained a nest 

 with four eggs on the Podorata river, which flows into the 

 Kara Gulf ; and some eggs taken by a Samoyede were 

 brought to Mr. Seebohm on his trip to the Yenesei, thus 

 connecting the breeding-range from the west with the first 

 discovery by Middendorflf on the Taimyr. 



Little Stints are most frequently found on the sandy 

 shores of the sea, and generally in company with the Dunlin 



VOL. III. 8 E 



