BROAD -BILLED SANDPIPER. 127 



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the long innermost secondaries sooty-black, with ferruginous margins and tipped 

 with ash-grey ; middle of the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts sooty- 

 black, fringed with white, grey, or ferruginous ; tail-feathers ash-brown with white 

 shaft-lines and white margins, crown of head, hind-neck, and sides of neck blackish- 

 brown, with grey and sometimes white margins to the feathers ; sides of the fore-head 

 and an indistinct line over the eye white, the feathers above and behind the latter 

 more or less streaked with dusky-brown ; loral streak and ear -coverts dusky-brown, 

 the feathers on the fore-neck inclining to grey with broader dark centres, which 

 form a band ; remainder of the under-surface white, including the breast, abdomen, 

 under tail-coverts, sides of rump, sides of body and axillaries ; thighs dusky -grey ; 

 under wing-coverts white, finely mottled with brown round the margin, the primary- 

 coverts and quill-lining greyish -brown. Total length 175 mm. ; culmen 31, wing 

 106, tail 37, tarsus 23. The sexes are alike. 



Adult male (summer). General colour of the upper-surface sooty -black with 

 ferruginous and white margins to the feathers ; bastard-wing and marginal wing- 

 coverts dark brown, lesser and median coverts grey with dark centres ; greater 

 coverts pale brown, margined with white ; primary -coverts and primary-quills 

 dark brown, the latter having white shafts and pale inner webs becoming white at 

 the base ; secondary-quills pale dusky-brown with white margins and white bases, 

 the long innermost secondaries black, broadly margined with ferruginous ; upper 

 tail-coverts black, narrowly fringed with ferruginous ; tail-feathers pale brown, 

 margined with white, becoming much paler on the outer feathers ; crown of head 

 black with slight ferruginous margins to the feathers and divided by a whitish streak 

 on each side of the crown ; sides of fore-head white, superciliary line also white, 

 more or less intermixed with minute lines of pale brown like the cheeks and sides 

 of neck ; loral spot blackish, sides of breast grey, narrowly centred with dark brown ; 

 under-surface white with a buffy tinge ; axillaries and sides of rump pure white ; 

 under wing-coverts white, mottled with pale brown on the margin ; primary -coverts 

 and quill-lining pearl-grey. 



Immature. Fore-head grey with white tipping, top of head dark brown, 

 neck grey, back dark brown with pale buff and white tips, coverts grey with black 

 centres and tips grey, primaries with white tips, tail-feathers with white tips ; 

 under-surface white with indistinct ashy -grey breast-band ; bill small and weak, 

 otherwise very like summer -plumage but lacking ferruginous edging to the 

 feathers. 



Nestling in down. Upper-surface mottled with black and rich red -brown, 

 definite pattern indeterminable, the black being predominant, very thickly spangled 

 with minute white specks ; frontal streak distinct, and as well as a loral streak 

 there is a pronounced malar stripe ; under-surface very pale buffish tinge on chest, 

 otherwise pure white ; the bill is long and shows the beginning of the flattening 

 of the tip. 



Nest. A depression in the moss, on a marsh, lined with withered leaves and 

 grass. 



Eggs. Clutch, four ; ground-colour stone-buff with a few pale purplish under- 

 lying shell spots and closely marked, so as sometimes to almost appear uniform, 

 with rich dark umber-brown or rufous -umber spots. Average measurements : 

 axis 32 mm., diameter 23 mm. 



Breeding-season . June . 



Distribution and forms. Northern Europe and Asia, migrating southward for 

 the winter, and two well-marked subspecies are distinguishable : P. f. falcinellus 

 (Briinnich ex Pontoppidan) from Europe ; and P. f. sibiricus Dresser from China 

 and East Siberia, a much paler race, in summer-plumage having the feathers on 

 the upper side with bright rufous margins, while the western race has black back 

 with narrow white or ochreous -white margins. 



