308 SANDERLING. 



dark clove-brown, the feathers tipped with greyish- 

 white, and margined broadly with pale reddish- 

 orange, forming, at a little distance, a rather hazy 

 mixture, in which the red and white predominates ; 

 the throat, breast, and sides of the breast, are white, 

 having the feathers barred with pale clove -brown 

 and orange-red ; the quills clove-brown, with white 

 shafts, and having the inner webs approaching to 

 greyish- white ; the under parts pure white ; tail 

 with the centre feathers lengthened, accuminated, 

 and dark clove-brown, the others pale hair-brown, 

 becoming lighter towards the outside, the last en- 

 tirely white, except a patch of hair-brown near the 

 tip of the inner web ; legs, feet and bill, black. In 

 the winter state the plumage is very different ; the 

 face, anterior to the eyes, and all the lower parts, 

 are pure white ; the upper parts a chaste shade of 

 brownish ash-grey ; centres of the feathers on the 

 head and nape darker, the shafts of the others only, 

 appearing marked ; the tips and edges are of a paler 

 tint, approaching nearly to white on the wing- 

 coverts and secondaries. The bird, when in flight, 

 appears very pure and silvery, and contrasted only 

 by the shoulders and band of the wing, which are 

 nearly greyish-black, and the brownish-black outer 

 webs of the quills ; the tail has the grey tint pre- 

 vailing instead of the clove-brown. In a young 

 state, in which it is often procured in autumn, the 

 lower parts are, as before, pure white ; the centre of 

 the crown is black, the feathers edged with yellow- 

 isn white, shading off to both sides in depth of tint ; 



