200 DUSK? TOTANUS. 



and tertials, sooty-black, with well defined trian- 

 gular spots of pure white along 1 the margin of the 

 web of each feather, which is also tipped with 

 white ; the primaries black, with white shafts, but 

 no white spots ; breast and belly black, a few of 

 the feathers with white tips ; under wing-coverts 

 white, with dusky -grey spots ; axillary plumes 

 pure white ; under tail-coverts barred black and 

 white ; legs and toes dark red ; claws black."* In 

 the plumage of the winter, the upper parts are 

 ash-grey, beneath pure white. In a bird before 

 us, the eye-brows, or from the base of the mandible 

 above the eyes, are pure white ; the head, back of 

 the neck, back, and tertials, are ash-grey, tinted 

 with brown ; on the wings, the ground colour of 

 the feathers is blackish ash-grey, tipped and cut 

 into on the edges with dull white, and the greater 

 and lesser coverts are barred with that colour ; 

 lower part of the back and rump are pure white, 

 the upper tail-coverts distinctly barred with black, 

 like the axillary feathers of the snipe ; the tail ash- 

 grey, barred with a darker shade, and having the 

 edges paler; the under parts are entirely pure 

 white, dashed with ash-grey on the cheeks, neck 

 and sides of the breast, on the latter, assuming the 

 form of undecided triangular bars. 



This Totanus is a rare bird in Britain ; Mr. Yar- 



rell records, in all, only seventeen instances of its 



occurrence, one of which, on the authority of Mr. 



Thompson, was shot in Belfast Bay. The most 



* Yarrell, ii. p. 523. 



