82 TOTANUS SEM1PALMATUS. 



worms, and other aquatic insects; in search of which, 

 it regularly resorts to the muddy shores and flats at 

 low water; its general rendezvous be'mir the mar-hes. 

 This hird has a summer and also a winter dre^-, its 

 colours differing so much in these seasons as scarcely 

 to appear to be the same species. Its spring and 

 summer plumage, in a good specimen, is as follows : 



Length, fifteen inches ; extent, thirty inches ; upper 

 parts, dark olive brown ; the feathers, streaked down 

 the centre, and crossed with waving lines of black ; 

 wing-coverts, light olive ash, and the whole upper 

 parts sprinkled with touches of dull yellowish white ; 

 primaries, black, white at the root half; secondaries, 

 white, bordered with brown ; rump, dark brown ; tail, 

 rounded, twelve feathers, pale olive, waved with bars 

 of black; tail-coverts, white, barred witli olive; bill, 

 pale lead colour, becoming black towards the tip ; eye, 

 very black; chin, white; breast, beautifully mottled 

 with transverse spots of olive on a cream ground; 

 belly and vent, white, the last barred with olive ; legs 

 and feet, pale lead colour ; toes, half webbed. 



Towards the fall, when these birds .associate in larire 

 flocks, they become of a pale dun colour above, the 

 plumage being shafted with dark brown, and the tail 

 white, or nearly so. At this season they are extremely 

 fat, and esteemed excellent eating. Experienced 

 gunners always select the lightest coloured ones from 

 a flock, as being uniformly the fattest. 



The female of this species is generally larger than 

 the male. In the months of October and November, 

 they gradually disappear. 



