SPOTTED REDSHANK. 627 



head, back of the neck, and upper part of the back, ash 

 grey : lesser wing-coverts ash grey, margined with white ; 

 greater coverts, the secondaries, and tertials, also ash grey, 

 with well-defined triangular spots of pure white along the 

 sides of each feather ; wing-primaries greyish black, without 

 spots ; rump white ; upper tail-coverts barred with dusky 

 grey and white ; middle tail-feathers plain ash grey, the 

 outer feathers on each side, like the upper tail-coverts, are 

 barred with dusky grey and white ; the chin white ; sides 

 and front of the neck white, tinged with ash colour ; breast, 

 belly, vent, and under tail-coverts pure white ; flanks 

 slightly tinged and streaked with ash grey ; legs and toes 

 vermilion red, claws black. 



The adult bird in summer has the beak nearly black, 

 but the base of the lower mandible is dark red ; the irides 

 dark brown ; over the eye the eyelid is white ; the whole 

 of the head, and the neck all round, sooty black : back, 

 scapulars, all the wing-coverts, secondaries, and tertials, 

 sooty black, with well-defined triangular spots of pure 

 white along the margin of the web of each feather, which 

 is also tipped with white ; the primaries black, with white 

 shafts, but no white spots ; breast and belly black, a few 

 of the feathers with white tips ; under wing-coverts white, 

 with dusky grey spots ; axillary plume pure white ; under 

 tail -co verts barred black and white ; legs and toes dark 

 red, claws black. 



Males and females do not differ in plumage, but the 

 females are rather larger than the males. An adult male 

 measured in its whole length twelve inches and a half; from 

 the carpal joint to the end of the wing, six inches and a 

 half; the first quill -feather the longest in the wing. 



In young birds of the year the plumage on the upper 

 surface of the body is tinged with brown, and the white 

 colour of the under surface of the body is clouded with 

 ash grey ; the legs orange red. 



