522 'RARE BRITISH BIRDS 



seasonal change in plumage takes place, but the coloration during the summer is darker and 

 less striated, owing to the light pattern of the feather being abraded and often worn quite 

 away ; the barring on the chest forms sagittate markings. General colour above, mottled ; the 

 feathers being dark brown edged with light buff; lower back and rump black; primaries and 

 their coverts brown ; secondaries dark brown, notched with white and barred with black ; 

 middle tail feathers brown, barred with black ; outer tail feathers buff, broadly tipped with 

 white, submarginally barred with black; head blackish, mesially streaked and edged with buff; 

 eyebrow, sides of face, and ear-coverts buff, finely streaked and spotted with black ; cheeks and 

 throat white ; chest buff, with triangular spots of black ; remainder of under parts buffish white ; 

 sides and flanks barred with brownish black ; under wing-coverts and axillaries white, banded 

 with black; under surface of quills ashy, barred and marked with white on the inner web; iris 

 hazel; bill yellowish green, tip dusky, cutting edges at the base j-ellow: legs and feet light 

 yellowish grey ; toes darker, [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. Breeds in North America, probably from Fort Yukon in Alaska, and 

 certainly in the whole of the prairie region from the Peace River district in the north and the 

 Rocky Mountains on the west to Missouri, Indiana, and North Virginia in the south and also 

 sparingly east to Ontario, being most numerous in Western Manitoba and Eastern Saskatchewan. 

 Its winter quarters lie on the Pampas of S. America, south to Argentina and Brazil. As a 

 casual it has occurred about eleven times in the British Isles (but not in Scotland or Wales) ; 

 also in Malta and Italy (twice), perhaps also in Holland, and according to Gould once in 

 Australia. [F. c. R. J.] 



MARSH-SANDPIPER [Totanus 1 stagndtilis Bechstein ; Tringa stagndtilis (Bechstein). 

 French, chevalier stagnatile ; German, Teick- Wasserldufer ; Italian, albastrello}. 



1. Description. Closely resembles the redshank in general plumage, but readily distin- 

 guished by its blue-black legs and feet. The sexes are alike in coloration, and there is a 

 seasonal change of plumage. Length 11 J in. [292 mm.]. General colour of the upper parts 

 dull bronze-brown, marked and barred with black ; primaries black ; shafts of the first primary 

 ivory-white ; under surface of the body, including the under wing-coverts and axillaries, white. 

 In the winter plumage all the feathers of the upper parts are fringed with white. 



2. Distribution. In Europe this species is only known with certainty to breed in the 

 south-east, and statements that it has bred in S. France and N.W. Africa require confirmation. 

 It nests in small numbers in Hungary, and in South Russia in Bessarabia and the governments 

 of Kherson, Kief, Orel, Tula, Riazan, Kazan, Ufa, and Perm. In Asia it breeds in Western 

 Siberia up to 55J (Baraba Steppe), Turkestan, and, according to Buturlin, to about 56 N. on 

 the Upper Olekma basin in East Siberia. On migration it has occurred in nearly all the 

 European countries south of the Baltic, but is rare in the west, and winters in Africa, where it 

 has been met with south to Cape Colony, and in Asia winters in Mesopotamia, Persia, India, 

 the Malay Peninsula, China, and the Malay Archipelago south to Australia. Has occurred four 

 times in England (three Sussex and one Herts). [F. c. E. J.] 



SPOTTED-SANDPIPER [Totanua maculdrius (Linnajus) ; Tringa maculdria (Linneeus)]. 



1. Description. Distinguished from the common-sandpiper in the more heavily striated 

 upper surface, and in having the under surface of the body thickly spotted with black ; it is, 

 moreover, a slightly smaller bird, and there is less white on the secondaries. The sexes are 

 alike. Length 7'5 in. [191 mm.]. After the autumn moult the plumage assumes a more 



1 As the type of the genus Tringa is the Green Sandpiper, the generic name Totanus should by strict priority be 

 superseded by Tringa. 



