ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. 67' 



summer in Hudson's Bay, and breeds there. Mr Pennant 

 suspects that it also breeds in Denmark; and says, that 

 they appear in vast flocks on the Flintshire shores 

 during the winter season.* With us they are also 

 migratory, being only seen in spring and autumn. They 

 are plump birds; and, by those accustomed to the 

 sedgy taste of this tribe, are esteemed excellent eating. 



The length of this species is ten inches, extent 

 twenty; bill, black, straight, fluted to nearly its tip, 

 and about an inch and a half long ; upper parts, 

 brownish ash, each feather marked near the tip with 

 a narrow semicircle of dark brown, bounded by another 

 of white; tail-coverts, white, marbled with olive; 

 wing-quills, dusky, shafts, white; greater coverts, 

 black, tipt with white ; some of the primaries edged 

 also with white ; tail, plain pale ash, finely edged and 

 tipt with white ; crown and hindhead, streaked with 

 black, ash, and white ; stripe over the eye, cheeks, and 

 chin, white, the former marked with pale streaks of 

 dusky, the latter pure ; breast, white, thinly specked 

 with blackish ; belly and vent, pure white ; legs, a 

 dirty yellowish clay colour; toes, bordered with a 

 narrow, thick, warty membrane; hind toe, directed 

 inwards, as in the turnstone ; claws and eye, black. 



These birds vary a little in colour, some being con- 

 siderably darker above, others entirely white below ; 

 but, in all, the concentric semicircles on the back, 

 scapulars, and wing-coverts, are conspicuous. 



I think it probable that these birds become much 

 lighter coloured during the summer, from the circum- 

 stance of having shot one late in the month of June, 

 at Cape May, which was of a pale drab or dun colour. 

 It was very thin and emaciated ; and on examination 

 appeared to have been formerly wounded, which no 

 doubt occasioned its remaining behind its companions. 



Early in December I examined the same coast every 

 day for nearly two weeks, without meeting with more 

 than one solitary individual of this species, although 



* Arctic Zoology, p. 474. 



