252 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



adults, but they may always be distinguished by the more 

 numerous white edgings to the dorsal and scapular feathers, by 

 the ashy colour of the hind-neck, by the absence of spots on 

 the fore-neck and chest, both of which are tinged with isabel- 

 line-buff. 



Nestling. Mottled with rufous and black down, the tips 

 of which are silvery-white or sandy-buff, the hind-neck sandy- 

 buff, forming a collar ; the crown of the head is black, slightly 

 mottled with rufous and dotted with silvery-white, the black 

 extending in a line on the forehead, which is buff, continued 

 into a somewhat broad eyebrow; a black loral line and a black 

 spot on each side of the hinder crown as well as on the ear- 

 coverts ; under surface of body whitish, with a tinge of sandy- 

 buff on the lower throat. 



Range in Great Britain. The Little Stint visits us in autumn 

 and spring, much more frequently at the former season, when 

 flocks are sometimes observed on the eastern coasts. It is 

 never very plentiful in the north, and on our western shores it 

 is practically unknown. To Ireland it is also a rare visitor, 

 and is only found on the eastern shores. 



Range outside the British Islands. The present species breeds 

 on the tundras of Northern Europe from Scandinavia to the 

 Taimyr Peninsular, in Siberia. The late Professor Taczanow- 

 ski separated the Siberian bird as a distinct race, which he 

 called Tringa minuta orientalis, but specimens from Lake 

 Baikal in the Seebohm collection cannot be separated from 

 true L. minuta. The Little Stint has been found breeding in 

 Finmark, in the Kola Peninsula, near Archangel, and in the 

 valleys of the Petchora and the Yenesei, as well as by Mid- 

 dendorf in the Taimyr Peninsula, where the first authentic 

 eggs were obtained. In winter the species goes south as far 

 as the Cape of Good Hope, the Indian Peninsula, and Ceylon, 

 In Eastern Siberia the Little Stint is replaced by the Red- 

 necked Stint (Z. ruficollis\ which migrates by way of China 

 and the Malay Archipelago to Australia in winter. 



Habits. In its appearance and habits the Little Stint is a 

 miniature Dunlin, and only its small size distinguishes it from 

 those birds, with which it is also frequently found in company. 

 In the^autumn, single birds, and those nearly always birds 



