TRINGA MINUTA 31& 



TRINGA MINUTA, Leisler. 

 LITTLE STINT. 



Tringa minuta, Leisl. Nachtr. zu Bcchst. Naturg. Deutschl. i, p. 74 



(1812) ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1896, p. 98. 

 Limonites minuta, Malherbc, Faune Oni. de I'AUj. p. 32 (1855) ; Sharpe, 



Cat. Birch Brit. Miis. xxiv, p. 538 ; Erlanrjer, J.f. 0. 1900, p. 64. 

 Actodromus minutus, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 313 (1867). 

 Actodromas minuta, Komig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 278; id. J. f. 0. 1893, 



p. 91. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Ghardimaou, North Tunisia. 



Above rust-colour, most of the feathers with black centres, those of the 

 lower back with white margins ; under parts white, slightly marked on the 

 breast with grey ; outer tail-feathers ash-grey. 



Iris hazel ; bill and feet black. 



Total length 5-70, wing 3-75, culmen -70, tarsus -75. 



Adult female resembles the male, but is, as a rule, slightly larger. 



In winter the plumage is much greyer, and lacks the rufous colour. 



Like the Dunlin, the Little Stint is to be found in Tunisia 

 throughout a considerable portion of the year, and is not uncommon 

 in winter and on passage on all the sandy shores of the sea-coast, 

 as well as on some of the inland lakes, rivers and salt-marshes. 

 Dr. Koenig, who frequently met with this species in Tunisia, observes 

 tJ. f. 0. 1893, p. 91) that all the individuals seen by him, even in 

 May, were in winter dress, and believes that these latter were 

 probably young birds, which would not migrate northwards that 

 year, but remain in the Regency throughout the summer. Specimens 

 however, obtained by me in May are in breeding plumage. 



The Little Stint is to be found in Algeria and Marocco as 

 a winter migrant, and its range at that season appears to extend 

 to South Africa. Its breeding quarters are in the more northern 

 parts of Europe and Asia, and although examples in full breeding 

 plumage have been obtained in summer in Southern Russia and the 

 Mediterranean, there is no evidence of the species having ever nested 

 so far south. I have myself obtained examples in full breeding 

 plumage in Sicily between the middle and end of June. Messrs. 

 Seebohm and Harvie-Brown were the first to obtain the eggs of 

 this Sandpiper in Europe, having discovered it breeding in 1875 

 on the Petchora River in North Russia, and to the former of these 



