PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 427 



sexes are alike, and there is a striking seasonal change of coloration. (PL 124.) Length 

 8 in. [203-20 mm.]. The adult in summer has the upper parts of a rich bay colour, 

 striated on the crown, hind-neck, and interscapulars with black, and barred with 

 black on the scapulars and long inner secondaries. The centre of the rump is ash- 

 brown, the sides white. The upper tail-coverts are white, strongly barred with 

 black. The wing-coverts do not, as a whole, assume the coloration of the rest of 

 the upper parts at this season, but when the nuptial plumage attains its maximum 

 brilliance a few black, red-tipped minor coverts will be found interspersed among 

 the ash-brown coverts of the " winter " plumage. The long inner secondaries, 

 similarly, are only partially affected by the change into nuptial plumage, a few 

 black, chestnut margined feathers being generally found among the ash-brown 

 feathers characteristic of the " winter " plumage. The sides of the face, neck, 

 and the whole of the under parts are of a deep mahogany-red, deeper than the red 

 of the back, and this region, in common with the top of the head, hind-neck, and 

 interscapular region, has commonly a more or less conspicuously " hoary " appear- 

 ance, caused by white fringes to the feathers. In some individuals the abdomen 

 and under tail-coverts are more or less white. In birds which are not quite fully 

 mature the under parts are paler in coloration, and the breast feathers have white 

 tips and a subterminal bar of black. After the autumn moult the upper parts 

 are of an ash-brown, paler margins to the feathers producing more or less distinct 

 striations on the crown and neck, and mottlings on the mantle. The lower rump 

 and upper tail-coverts, and the breast and abdomen are white. The young bird, 

 after its first autumn moult, differs from the adult in winter chiefly in that the 

 feathers of the mantle are much darker, almost black, with pale buff -white margins, 

 and the wing-coverts are similarly fringed with buff, and there is a tinge of buff 

 on the fore-breast. The juvenile and down plumages are unknown, [w. p. p.] 



2. Distribution. Up to the present this species has not been proved to 

 breed in Europe, or even in Western Siberia, and the only localities where it is 

 known to nest are the Yenisei valley about lat. 72 N. (H. L. Popham), the Taimyr 

 Peninsula (von Middendorff, Walter and Birulia), and the New Siberian Isles. Its 

 migration range is enormous : on passage it occurs on the coasts and inland waters 

 of Europe and Asia, wintering in Tropical and South Africa, where it has been 

 recorded even from Cape Colony and Madagascar. In Asia it winters in India, 

 Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula, and ranges even to the Malay Archipelago, 

 Australia, and Tasmania, while as a casual it has been recorded from Alaska, the 

 east coast of the United States, the West Indies, and Patagonia. [F. c. K. J.] 



