210 CURLEW SANDPIPER. 



and in the Purre or Dunlin at this season, to which, 

 in the whole summer dress, there is a considerable 

 resemblance ; the flanks and under tail-coverts are 

 dashed along their centres with brownish -black. 

 The length of this specimen is eight and a-half 

 inches, and shows a great disparity in the length 

 of the bill, which, to the forehead, is only one inch 

 and a-tenth, while in the two previously described, 

 it is respectively one inch and three-tenths, and one 

 inch and four-tenths. The Northern Zoology, how- 

 ever, states, that the bill in the female is generally 

 a quarter of an inch larger than in the opposite sex. 

 In the young, Mr. Selby states the plumage to be 

 " dull greyish -black, the feathers being margined 

 with dirty yellowish-brown ; bill at the base ochre- 

 yellow/' 



THE CURLEW SANDPIPER, TRINGA SUBARQUATA, 

 Temminck. Tringa subarquata, modern British 

 writers. Becasseau corcoli, Temm. Curlew Trin- 

 ga or Sandpiper, and Pigmy Curlew of British 

 authors. Of a more slender form, and standing 

 higher than the Dunlin or Purre, this species has 

 nevertheless been at times mistaken for it ; but it 

 may always be distinguished from that species, even 

 in flight, by the white colour of the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts. It is nowhere so abundant, and does 

 not assemble in the vast flocks in which we some- 

 times find the others, but sometimes it mixes with 

 them, where, in addition to the conspicuous white 



