582 SCOLOPACID.E. 



were perfected by the fourth of May. This bird began to 

 shed his ruff feathers on the 8th of June, and by the 6th of 

 July he had lost them all. The feathers that formed the 

 ruff round the neck of this same bird in the spring of 1 83 1 , 

 "were ash-coloured ; but the feathers that ornamented the 

 same part during the spring of 1832, were decidedly black. 



A female, killed at the end of April, from which the repre- 

 sentation was taken, had the beak one inch and one quarter 

 in length, dark brown at the point, but lighter in colour at 

 the base ; irides dusky brown ; head and neck, ash-brown, 

 the centre of each of the small feathers darker than the mar- 

 gin, producing a spotted appearance ; scapulars, back, wing- 

 coverts and tertials, nearly black, with broad ash-brown mar- 

 gins ; some of the great wing-coverts and tertials, barred 

 transversely with pale reddish brown ; primaries dull black, 

 with white shafts ; secondaries edged with pale brownish 

 white ; rump, and upper tail-coverts, brown ; tail-feathers, 

 ash-brown, barred transversely with pale reddish brown, and 

 black ; chin, greyish white ; feathers, of the front of the 

 neck, the breast, and sides, black in the centre, with broad 

 greyish-white margins ; belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, 

 white ; legs and toes, pale yellowish brown ; claws black. 



The whole length of a female ten inches and a half. The 

 Aving, from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill- 

 feather, which is the longest, six inches and a quarter. 



A female, killed very early in spring at Malta, and given 

 to me by Dr. Calvert, is more uniformly ash-brown, the cen- 

 tral dark colour of the feathers occupying much smaller space, 

 and this is more or less the appearance of males before they 

 assume the plumage of the breeding-season, but the females 

 are much more constant in their colouring. 



