SHARP-TAILED STINT. 129 



appearance ; head speckled, the feathers of the back of the neck dull grey tips, the 

 upper back darker ; scapulars and inner secondaries bright brown with huffish tips, 

 coverts with broad whitish tips, secondaries with broad white edges ; rump feathers 

 with dull grey tips ; upper-tail coverts pure white ; tail tipped with white ; under- 

 surface white with a greyish breast-band, feathers with dark shaft-stripes. 



Nestling in dawn. Golden-buff and rich red -brown mottling above, with white 

 spangling ; under-surface buffy -white, darker on chest, paler on abdomen. 



Nest. A depression in the ground. 



Eggs. Clutch, four ; ground-colour pale greenish-grey, marked with a few 

 purplish-grey underlying spots, and rich deep rufous-brown surface spots and large 

 blotches, the latter collected at the larger end ; axis 38.75 mm., diameter 25.65. 



Breeding -sea-son. June. (Taimyr River, Siberia.) 



Distribution and forms. Breeding in the Arctic Regions of Europe and Asia, 

 migrating southward to Australia in the winter. Eastern and western subspecies 

 are admitted, the eastern form being paler in both summer- and winter-plumage. 



Genus LIMNOCINCLUS. 



Limnocinclus Gould, Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. II., p. 254, Dec. 1865. Type (by subsequent 

 designation, Salvadori, Ornit. Pap. e Mol., Vol. III., p. 312, Dec. 1882): Totanus acuminatus 

 Horsfield. 



Small Waders with short straight bills, long wings, short tails, short legs, but 

 stout and long toes. 



The culmen is short, straight, and slightly expanded at the tip, the groove in 

 the upper mandible extending almost to the tip ; it is shorter than the metatarsus 

 and about equal to the middle toe alone. 



The wings are long and pointed, with the first primary longest. The tail is 

 less than half the length of the wing, and is just twice the length of the metatarsus. 

 It is strongly wedge shaped. The metatarsus is short but stout, regularly scutellate 

 in front and behind ; quite appreciably longer than the culmen, also than the middle 

 toe and claw. The hind -toe is comparatively short ; all the toes are cleft to the base. 



89. Limnocinclus acuminatus. SHARP-TAILED STINT. 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 30 (pt. xxvm.), Sept. 1st, 1847. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 3, pi. 161, Aug. 

 18th, 1913. 



Totanus acuminatus Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond.), Vol. XIII., pt. I., p. 192, 1821 : 



Java. 



Tringa australis Jardine and Selby, Illustr. Ornith., Vol. II., pi. 91, Aug. 1830 : New Holland. 



Not of Gmelin, Syst. Nat., Vol. I., p. 679, 1789. 



Limnocinclus acuminatus rufescens Mathews, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club., Vol. XXXVI., p. 82, 



May 25th, 1916 : North-west Australia. 



DISTRIBUTION. "Winter visitor to Australia and Tasmania, breeding in the northern hemi- 

 sphere. 



Adult male. Upper-parts dark brown with paler brown bases and ferruginous 

 or grey margins to the feathers of the head, hind-neck, back, scapulars, rump, and 

 central upper tail-coverts ; sides of rump and lateral upper tail-coverts white with 

 dark shaft-streaks, some of the long coverts have a dark submarginal line ; lesser 

 and marginal upper wing-coverts dark brown narrowly edged with ash-grey, the 

 median coverts greyish-brown with darker shaft-lines, the greater coverts more 

 uniform brown with pale edges and broadly fringed with white at the tips ; bastard- 

 wing and primary -coverts dark brown, the latter edged with white at the tips, more 

 conspicuously on the inner ones ; marginal coverts on outer edge of wing dark 

 brown fringed with white ; primary-quills dark brown, paler on the inner webs 

 and at the tips, the shafts partially white, the secondary -quills similar but the inner 



