250 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



numerously distributed, and consisting of blackish-brown spots 

 and confluent blotches, as well as tiny dots ; the underlying 

 spots are pale grey. Axis, 1-55 inch ; diam., 1-05. 



THE STINTS. GENUS LIMONITES. 



Limonites, Kaup. Natiirl. Syst. p, 55 (1829). 



Type, L. minuta (Lei si.). 



The Stints consist of five species, of which three belong to 

 the British list. They are all birds of small size and may be 

 distinguished from the Dunlins by having the culmen as nearly 

 as possible of the same length as the tarsus, while the latter is 

 of about the same length as the middle toe and claw. By this 

 last character they can be distinguished from the Pectoral 

 Sandpipers (ffcteropygi*\ in which genus the tarsus is longer 

 than the middle toe and claw. 



Z. minuta is the species of Europe and Western Asia, and 

 is replaced in Eastern Asia by Z. ruficollis and Z. sub-minuta. 

 Z. minutilla is North American, and Z. temmincki is found 

 both in Northern Europe and Asia, from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific. All the species migrate far to the south in winter. 



I. THE LITTLE STINT. LIMONITES MINUTA. 



Tringa minuta, Leisl. in Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. Nachtr. i. 



p. 74 (1812); Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 227 (1852) ; Dresser, 



B. Eur. viii. p. 29, pi. 549, fig. i. (1871); Saunders, ed. 



Yarrell, Brit. B. iii. p. 386 (1883) ; B. O. U. List Brit. 



B. p. 169 (1883); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 204 



(1885); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 571 (1889); Lilford, 



Col. Fig. Brit. B.part xix. (1891). 

 Limonites minuta, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 539 



(1896). 



Adult in Winter Plumage, General colour above ashy-brown, 

 slightly darker along the shafts ; lower back, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts blackish-brown ; sides of lower back and lateral 

 upper tail-coverts pure white ; tail feathers light smoky-brown, 

 the long central ones dark brown, with a very narrow whitish 

 fringe; wing-coverts rather darker brown than the back, with 

 ashy fringes to the median series, the greater coverts tipped 



