tejmminik''s stint. 649 



says it visits North Africa ; and Mr, Strickland saw it at 

 Smyrna in winter. Colonel Sykes includes it in his Cata- 

 logue of the Birds of the Dukhun ; Mr. Gould mentions that 

 specimens have been received here from a high range on 

 the Himalaya ; and M. Temminck says that examples from 

 Timor and the islands of the Indian Archipelago, are iden- 

 tical with those of Europe. 



An adult bird, killed at a pond side in Essex, in the 

 month of May, and lent me by Mr. Henry Doubleday, has 

 the beak dull black ; the irides dark brown ; feathers of the 

 head and neck pale brown, speckled with dark brown ; fea- 

 thers of the scapulai-s and back, some ash brown, others black 

 with rufous margins ; wing-coverts nearly uniform ash brown ; 

 primaries dusky brown, the shaft of the first quill-feather 

 whiter than those of the others ; secondaries dusky, but tip- 

 ped with white ; tertials uniform dusky brown ; tail-coverts 

 dusky brown, those nearest the tail-feathers almost black ; 

 tail cuneiform, or somewhat graduated, the central pair of 

 feathers the longest, the darkest in colour, and pointed ; the 

 next feather on each outside ash brown, the next ash grey, 

 the three outside feathers on each side white, tinged with 

 light ash grey on the narrow outer webs only, the outside 

 feather on each side being the shortest ; the chin white ; 

 sides of the neck grey ; the neck in front pale brown, spotted 

 with dusky brown, and tinged with buff; breast, belly, and 

 under tail-coverts white ; under surface of the wings ash grey, 

 the shafts of all the primaries white ; axillary plume pure 

 white ; legs and toes greenish brown. 



The whole length of the largest specimen I ever saw five 

 inches and three-quarters ; length of the beak nine sixteenths 

 of an inch ; from the carpal joint to the end of the first quill- 

 feather, which is the longest in the wing, three inches and 

 five eighths ; length of the tarsus eleven sixteenths, the bare 

 part above half the length of the tarsus. 



