448 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



head and neck are of a light ash-grey heavily striated with dark grey, while the 

 interscapulars and scapulars are of a dark grey, margined with paler grey fading 

 into white at the edges. Interspersed among the interscapulars are many black 

 feathers margined with white, contrasting conspicuously with the neighbouring 

 feathers. The scapulars are ash-grey with shaft-streaks, and a submarginal band 

 of black. Many feathers have either the outer or inner web black, some are quite 

 black, with grey margins. Many of the long inner secondaries are ash-grey, with 

 spots of darker grey along the outer margin. Some are black with ash-grey margins, 

 occasionally transversely barred with black. The lower back and rump are pure 

 white, and the upper tail-coverts are white barred with black. The tail is white 

 barred black, save the two central feathers, which are ash-grey freckled with darker 

 grey and notched with black on the margins. The wing-coverts are dusky brown, 

 but the major coverts and long inner secondaries are barred with black, the bars 

 on the coverts being broken. The primaries are black, the outermost with a white 

 shaft. The under parts are white. The side of the head, neck, and fore-breast 

 are white heavily striated with black, and the flanks are barred with black. The 

 beak is black, the legs and feet pale olive-green, and the iris dark brown. After 

 the autumn moult the upper parts are greyer, much less heavily striated, and lack 

 the black blotches on the mantle ; similarly, the striations on the neck and breast 

 are greatly reduced. The juvenile fledgling plumage differs from that of the adult 

 in summer in being of a blackish brown colour above, and have the feathers margined 

 with pale buff, while the innermost secondaries are obscurely spotted with black. 

 The young in down are of a pale buff above, with a triangular black spot on the 

 crown, and a black loral stripe continued backwards behind the eye to merge with 

 a navy black line on the nape. The back is marked by a median and lateral stripes 

 of black. The under parts are white, [w. p. P.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles this species is found breeding only 

 in Scotland, where its range has increased, and it is now found on the mainland 

 chiefly in the Moray basin, Sutherland, and East Ross, but also in smaller numbers 

 in Caithness and south to Argyll and North Perth, Lewis and Harris, Skye, and 

 perhaps Tiree. It is also said to have nested in the Shetlands. On the Continent 

 it breeds on the high f jeld in Scandinavia, especially the Lang and Dovre and north 

 of Jemtland ; in Finland in small numbers in the north, but rarely in the south ; 

 and in Russia from the Dwina and Petschora south to the Petersburg, Pskov, Tula, 

 Riazan, Kazan, and Ufa governments. In Asia it is found right across the Continent 

 north to about 65-66 and east to Kamtschatka, while its southward limit is about 



