390 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black ; legs and toes dark plumbeous brown ; 

 claws horn-colour. 



Length 6 inches, tail 1*7, wing 3*8, tarsus '8, bill from gape *75, middle 

 toe and claw not exceeding -8. The female is of much the same size. 



This species may be distinguished from the next by the shortness of its 

 toes, and by the colour of the shafts of the primaries, the first of which is 

 ' white throughout and the others with a considerable portion white. In 

 T. subminuta the toes are long, the central one including the claw measuring 

 nearly an inch in length and the shafts of all the primaries are brown, 

 except that of the first quill, which is albescent. 



From T. temmincM it may be recognized by the outer tail-feathers being 

 pale brown, not pure white. 



T. ruficollis (T. albescens), from China and Eastern Asia generally, in 

 winter plumage resembles T. minuta so closely that the two cannot be dis- 

 criminated in all cases. T. ruficollis , however, on the whole appears to 

 have a shorter tarsus, the length seldom or never exceeding '7 inch, 

 whereas in T. minuta the tarsus usually measures *8. In summer plumage 

 T. ruficollis has the face, neck and chest rufous and the breast spotted 

 with dark brown. 



The Little Stint is by no means a common species in Burmah, for this 

 country appears to be its extreme southern and eastern limit. Mr. Hume 

 has received it from Tonka, Jurrum and Klang in the Malay peninsula ; 

 but Dr. Tiraud does not include it in his list of the birds of Cochin China, 

 and its occurrence in the countries of South-eastern Asia must be looked 

 upon as more or less accidental. In Burmah I procured it once or 

 twice near Kyeikpadein, and Dr. Armstrong found it common on the 

 coast at the mouths of the Irrawaddy river; but Mr. Davison found it rare 

 at Amherst and Mergui in Tenasserim. 



It occurs, according to season, throughout Europe and nearly the whole 

 of Africa, extending through Asia as far east as Burmah. It has not been 

 met with in China, where the allied T. albescens occurs. It breeds in 

 Siberia and in the extreme north of Europe. 



This species is found in flocks of considerable numbers, and frequents 

 not only the sea-coast, but also paddy-fields, the edges of ponds and the 

 banks of rivers. 



