196 COMMON GOD WIT. 



out of Europe, parts of Continental India and the 

 East India Islands, are its best authenticated lo- 

 calities. These are given on the authority of Tem- 

 minck. 



This bird, with the exception of the longer legs 

 and variegated tail, much resembles the last. In sum- 

 mer, the whole head and neck, breast, and all the 

 lower parts, are of a subdued orange-red of uniform 

 tint. The centre of the feathers on the crown, lower 

 parts of the back of the neck, being broadly marked 

 along the centres with blackish-brown, which ex- 

 tends upon the sides of the breast in narrow streaks. 

 The lower eyelid is white. Above, the ground 

 colour is rich purplish blackish-brown, the feathers 

 deeply cut into with ochraceous and pale reddish- 

 orange ; on the shoulders and wing- coverts the tint 

 approaches more to clove-brown, each feather edgecl 

 with white, and these are generally intermixed with 

 feathers of a darker colour, cut into with red ; but 

 we do not find in that part that the whole plu- 

 mage assumes the summer tints. The rump and tail- 

 coverts in this state are white, tinted with rufous, and 

 have the centre of the feathers dark, the tail-coverts 

 often become entirely rufous, barred with blackish- 

 brown ; the quills are deep blackish^brown at the 

 tips and along the outer webs, shading into white 

 on the edge of the inner, and becoming there mot- 

 tled with hair-brown. The tail is greyish-white, 

 tinted with rufous, the tip of each feather white, 

 the shafts of very deep clove- brown, with irregular 

 but decided bars crossing each feather of the same 



