260 A HANDBOOK OF EUROPEAN BIRDS. 
brown, paler beneath, veryvi@@ide and flat, much longer than 
head; \egs and feet blackish; irides hazel-brown. Length 6 
to 6°5 inches ; culmen 1°3 ; wing 4°2; tail 1°6; tarsus 0°8. 
Adult (Winter): ‘From the base of the beak to the eye 
a brown streak, over that a broad one of white; top of the 
head, nape, back, all the wing-coverts and tertials ash-grey, 
the centre of each feather darker and the margin lighter ; 
primaries black ; chin, neck in front, and all the under surface 
pure white ; legs blackish-brown ” (Saunders). 
Young in first plumage: Have the wing-coverts, white 
margins to the back feathers and breast suffused with buff. 
Distribution: Breeds in North-eastern Europe, migrating 
through Central Europe to Northern Africa in autumn. 
Occurs as far east in Asia as Japan, and in winter on the 
Indian coasts. <A rare straggler to Western Europe. 
Habitat: Inland marshes, shores of fresh-water lakes. 
Genus TRINGA. - 
f 
DA NE PN, 
Tringa alpina Linn. 
Adult (Summer): Feathers of upper parts black, with 
chestnut margins; scapulars more chestnut than black ; wings 
and tail greyish-brown, the latter having the central pair 
darker than the rest; wing-coverts pale tipped, the greater 
ones white tipped; chin white; scarcely spotted; throat, 
breast and sides of neck greyish-white, each feather streaked 
more or less conspicuously down the centre with blackish- 
brown ; cextre of abdomen blackish-brown ; axillaries and rest 
of under parts white; bill, Zegs and feet d/ack; irides hazel. 
Length 6°5 to 7:5 inches; culmen 1°23; wing 4°3 to 4'5; tail 
og ; tarsus 1. 
Adult (Winter): Above nearly uniform ashy-grey, the 
centres of the feathers darker and their margins paler ; throat 
greyish-white, obscurely marked with dull brown, vest of under 
parts white. 
Young in first plumage: Feathers of upper parts much 
as in the adult in summer, but the pale edgings also consist of 
buff and white and are somewhat more conspicuous; rump, 
