224 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Limicola platyrhyncha. Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 3, pi. 545 

 (1876); B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 167 (1883); Saunders, 

 ed. Yarrell's Brit B. iii. p. 362 (1883) ; id. Man. Brit. B. 

 p. 563 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxiv. 



Adult Male in Winter Plumage. General colour above light ashy- 

 grey, somewhat paler on the edges of the feathers, which have 

 dusky-brown centres ; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts 

 blackish, with slight remains of sandy-buff fringes ; sides of 

 rump and lateral upper tail-coverts white ; wing-coverts rather 

 darker than the back, the marginal ones dark brown, the 

 median series blackish in the centre with hoary-white margins ; 

 the greater series dusky-blackish, edged with hoary-grey, in- 

 clining to white at the ends, and forming a narrow band across 

 the wing ; bastard-wing and primary-coverts black tipped with 

 white, the latter broadly; quills black, paler brown on the 

 inner webs of the primaries, excepting at the tips, which are 

 black ; secondaries merely fringed with white near the ends, 

 and with a little white towards the base of the inner web, the 

 inner secondaries ashy like the back, the shafts of all the 

 quills white or whity-brown ; centre tail-feathers blackish like 

 the upper tail-coverts, the rest ashy-brown with white shafts 

 and white fringes ; crown of head like the back ; the lores 

 dusky, surmounted by a broad white streak which is continued 

 into a narrow eyebrow ; sides of face white with a few tiny 

 streaks of dusky-brown ; ear-coverts uniform dusky-brown \ 

 under surface of body white with a few streaks of dusky-brown 

 on the lower throat and sides of breast ; under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries white, the marginal-coverts mottled with dusky 

 bases ; lower primary-coverts ashy ; bill dusky black ; legs and 

 feet slaty-black ; iris dark brown. Total length, 6-5 inches ; 

 culmen, 1-3; wing, 4-1; tail, r6; tarsus, 0-8. 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. General colour above black, 

 slightly varied with rufous edgings to the feathers, some of 

 those of the mantle, scapulars, inner greater coverts, and 

 inner secondaries having sandy-buff margins, the black form- 

 ing large sub-terminal spots ; crown of the head black, with a 

 sandy-buff lateral stripe ; lores black ; sides of face rufescent, 

 thickly spotted with dusky-black like the sides of the neck ; the 



