424 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



The eggs are laid in the south of the British Isles from about the second week 

 in May onward, and from mid-May in the Shetlands, but mountain-breeding 

 birds are naturally later than those at low levels. Probably only one brood is 

 reared as a rule, though eggs have been found as late as July. [r. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. In inland breeding-places, insects and their larvae, worms and 

 fresh-water crustaceans. On the shore, various small thin-skinned crustaceans, 

 small molluscs, and worms, and the insects that breed in seaweed and rubbish 

 at high- water mark. In N.E. Greenland Herr Manniche observed that they eat 

 only animal food. Stomachs he examined contained pupae of Muscidce (Diptera of 

 the "house-fly" group) and spiders (Terrestrial Mammals and Birds of N.E. Green- 

 land, pp. 137-8). There are several records of dunlin meeting their death by having 

 their bills caught and held in the shells of cockles. The young are accompanied 

 and aided in their search for food by both parents. They feed on insects and 

 their larvae, and small worms, [w. F.] 



LITTLE-STINT [Pelidna minuta (Leisler) ; Tringa minuta Leisler. 

 French, petit becasseau ; German, kleiner Strandlaufer ; Italian, gambeccio]. 



i. Description. The little-stint is to be recognised from its congeners partly 

 by its size and partly by the grey colour of the outer tail feathers. The sexes are 

 alike, and there is a conspicuous seasonal change of plumage. (PI. 124.) Length 

 6 in. [152-40 mm.]. The adult, in nuptial dress, is of a bright chestnut striated 

 with black on the upper parts, the striations being heaviest on the crown, scapulars, 

 and interscapulars. On the former they take the form of broad shaft-streaks, on the 

 scapulars and interscapulars they expand so as to leave only a narrow marginal band 

 of chestnut. The rump and upper tail-coverts are black, the former with a narrow 

 terminal fringe of chestnut, the latter with rather more conspicuous lateral margins of 

 the same hue. The two central tail feathers are black, the rest pale ash-grey. Many 

 of the interscapulars have pale grey fringes, tinged with chestnut. The wing-coverts 

 are of a dark ash-grey, and those of the major series are tipped with white. The 

 primaries are slate-coloured, the innermost with a narrow line of white along the 

 free edge, fading out towards the tip of the feathers. The secondaries are ash-grey, 

 those of the middle series with narrow margins of white along the outer web. The 

 long inner secondaries are also ash-grey, but one or two are black with chestnut 

 margins. The sides of the face, neck, fore-breast, and flanks are sharply striated 

 with grey on a white ground, the rest of the under parts being pure white. After 



