TRINGINJE. 353 



greater-coverts barred black and reddish-brown ; primaries dusky ; 

 tail with the middle feathers barred black and reddish -brown ; the 

 throat, forepart of the neck, and the lower parts pure white, some- 

 times mottled with blackish ; the breast reddish or ashy-brown, 

 with or without darker spots. 



The female is much smaller, has more of an ashy tint through- 

 out, and the feathers more or less dark centred. 



Length, 9 5 to 10'5 ; wing, 6; tail, 2'2 ; tarsus, T6 ; weight, 

 3*5 to 4 oz. 



The Buff is a very common cold weather visitant to Guzerat, 

 Kutch, and Jodhpore ; it is rather less common in Sind, and in 

 the Deccan it is rare. It is one of the earliest of our winter visi- 

 tants. It is excellent eating when in good condition. 



GENUS, Tringa, Lin. 



Bill moderate or short, soft, flexible, straight, or bent down at 

 the tip, which is depressed and obtuse, channelled through almost 

 to the tip^ i wings long with the first quill longest ; tail short, 

 even ; tarsus rather short, scutellate anteriorly ; toes free, or 

 barely united by a small web. 



Tringa crassirostris, Tern. & Schleg. 



SSIbis. Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 249. 



TEMMINCK'S KNOT. 



Length, 11*35 to 12 ; expanse, 23'5 to 24 ; wing, 71 to 7'3 ; 

 tail, 27 to 2-8 ; tarsus, T4 to T55 ; bill at front, 1'6 to 1*85. 



Bill black, occasionally paler at base beneath ; legs and feet 

 vary from dusky to pale plumbeous. 



In the winter plumage the upper surface reminds one not a little 

 of that of Tot anus stagnatilis. The whole lower parts are 

 white, but the base of the neck in front, and the sides, are marked 

 with numerous small brown striae, and the upper breast, besides 

 more or less of these striations, is mottled with larger pale brown 

 spots, here and there interspersed with conspicuous heart-shaped 

 blackish-brown spots, which are the first traces of the coming 

 summer plumage. 



Lores, top, back, and sides of the head and neck very pale 

 greyish-brown, all the feathers narrowly streaked along the shaft 

 with dark-brown ; the upper back and whole mantle is a mixture 

 of pale brown and ashy, most of the feathers with blackish shafts, 

 more or less darkly centred, and all conspicuously, though narrow- 

 ly, margined and tipped with white ; lower back and rump brown, 

 the feathers narrowly and regularly margined with white ; upper 

 tail-coverts similar, but the white margins much broader and the 

 brown more or less obsolete on many of them ; tail feathers 

 greyish-brown, greyer and somewhat darker on the central one, 

 and paler and browner on the external ones, all are excessively 

 narrowly, in fact -almost obsolete ly, bordered with white ; the 



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