320 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



gentlemen we are indebted for some highly interesting and detailed 

 particulars regarding the nesting habits of the species. 



The Little Stint affects the same localities as the Dunlin, and, like 

 it, is to be found in flocks, both large and small, and often consorting 

 with other species of waders. When in large flocks it is wild and 

 almost unapproachable, but when met with singly or in pairs it is 

 remarkably tame and confiding. On the wing it is very swift, and 

 it also runs with great rapidity. Its note, uttered by the bird chiefly 

 on the wing, is rather shrill and piping. 



Its food consists of insects and their larvae, worms, small 

 crustaceans, and the seeds of certain plants. 



TRINGA TEMMINCKI, Leisler. 

 TEMMINCK'S STINT. 



Tringa temminckii, Leisl. Nachtr. eu Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. i, p. 64 

 (1812) ; Malltcrbc, Faune Oni. de I'Alg. p. 32 (1855). 



Actodromus temminckii, Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. ii, p. 314 (1867). 



Pelidna temminckii, Koenig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 278 ; id. J. f. 0. 1893, 

 p. 91. 



Limonites temmincki, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mns. xxiv, p. 555 ; 

 Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1900, p. 63. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Italy. 



Upper parts groyish-brown, the feathers with blackish centres, and 

 margined with greyish-rufous ; quills blackish-brown, the shaft of only the 

 outer primary white, the other shafts being dusky ; middle tail-feathers dark 

 brown, the remainder chiefly white and the two outer pairs completely 

 white ; throat and breast brownish-grey, with darker streaks ; rest of under 

 parts white. 



Iris brown ; bill blackish ; feet greenish-grey. 



Total length 5-70, wing 3-75, culmen -70, tarsus -65. 



Adult female resembles the male. 



lu winter the plumage is greyer. 



Although not rare, Temminck's Stint does not seem to be common 

 in the Eegency, or so universally distributed as the preceding species. 

 Von Erlanger, however, appears to have found it not uncommon in 

 the month of January at the mouth of the Oued Gabes in South 



