256 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



shaft streaks and spots ; bill and feet black ; iris dark brown. 

 Total length, 5 inches; culmen, o'3 ; wings, 3*55; tail, i'6; 

 tarsus, 075 ; middle toe and claw, 075. 



Adult Male in Summer Plumage Similar to Z. minuta^ but much 

 smaller, and blacker on the tipper surface, where the rufous is 

 never so strongly characterised as in Z. minuta ; sides of face 

 dusky-brown with scarcely any tinge of rufous; lower throat and 

 chest ashy, with strongly-marked streaks and spots of blackish- 

 brown, with scarcely any tinge of rufous ; bill black ; feet 

 dark olive-brown; iris dark brown. Total length, 5-2 inches; 

 culmen, o'8 ; wing, 3*4; tail, 1-5; tarsus, 075; middle toe 

 and claw, 0*8. 



Adult Female in Breeding Plumage Similar to the male; "bill 

 blackish-brown ; feet light clay-brown ; iris dark brown." Total 

 length, 5-3 inches; culmen, 0-9; wing, 3-35; tail, 1-4; tarsus, 

 07. 



Young. Resembles the summer plumage of the adult, being 

 black with rufous margins to the feathers, but is distinguished 

 by the white margins to the feathers of the upper surface, and 

 by the absence of spots on the lower throat and fore-neck, 

 which are tinged with buff. 



Characters. The American Little Stint is a smaller bird than 

 Z. minuta^ and the measurements will serve to distinguish it 

 in all stages. In colour of plumage, and in its changes, it is, at 

 all times, similar to the last-named bird, but has a very much 

 more slender bill. 



Range in Great Britain. The present species is only an acci- 

 dental visitor to our south-eastern coasts, where it has occurred 

 on three occasions once in Mount's Bay in Cornwall and 

 twice in North Devonshire. 



Eange outside the British Islands. Z. minutilla breeds in the 

 high north of the New World, and migrates south in winter, 

 when it extends its range over the greater part of the South 

 American continent. 



Habits. These, as might be expected, are very similar to 

 those of Z. minuta and the other small Stints, and ca.ll for no 

 special description. 



