626 SCOLOPACID^. 



plumage, obtained in the London market ; the figure in 

 the background is from a specimen in summer plumage, 

 obtained some years since in the fens of Cambridgeshire. 

 The finest specimens in summer plumage I have yet seen 

 are in the collection of Richard Dann, Esq., who, in 

 several summer excursions, when fishing and shooting in 

 Norway and Lapland, found these birds within the Arctic 

 Circle. Mr. John "Wolley, whose researches in Natural 

 History are so well known and appreciated, found nests 

 and eggs of this species in Finland ; and Mr. Hewitson has 

 figured three of these very rare and beautiful eggs, each of 

 them pear-shaped, and one inch seven-eighths in length, by 

 one inch and a quarter in breadth : the prettiest in colour 

 is of a rich asparagus green, with rather numerous oblong 

 spots of brownish black over the broadest part of the egg, 

 with smaller spots and specks of ash-grey and reddish 

 brown. In the others, the ground colour is olive brown. 

 Old and young leave the high northern ground in August, 

 and are seen in Sweden on their passage southward, in 

 small families. Miiller includes this species in his Zoologia 

 Danica, and from these northern shores it may be traced 

 southwards to Holland, France, Spain, Provence, Switzer- 

 land, and Italy, in each of which countries it is seen on 

 its passage in spring and autumn. It inhabits the sea- 

 shore, the borders of rivers and lakes, morasses and water 

 meadows, feeding on worms, aquatic insects, and small 

 testacea. The stomachs of Mr, Bartlett's specimens con- 

 tained only very minute spiral univalves. 



This species is found in Nepal and in the vicinity of 

 Calcutta. 



The adult bird in its winter plumage has the beak black, 

 except at the base, where it is bright red ; the irides dark 

 brown ; from the nostril to the eye a dusky grey streak ; 

 above that a white streak as far as the eye; top of the 



