TEREK SANDPIPER. 141 



97. Terekia cinerea. TEREK SANDPIPER. 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 34 (pt. xxxiv.), Dec. 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 3, pi. 154, Aug. 



18th, 1913. 



Scolopax cinerea Gueldenstadt, Nov. Comm. Acad. Sci. Imp. Petrop., Vol. XIX., p. 473, 



pi. 19, 1774 : shore of Caspian Sea. 



Scolopax terek Latham, Index Ornith., Vol. II., p. 724, before Dec. 9th, 1790. New name 



for preceding. 



Totanusjavanicus Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond.), Vol. XIII., pt. I., p. 193, 1821 : Java. 



Scolopax sumatrana Raffles, ib., pt. n., p. 327, 1822 : Sumatra. 



Fedoa terekensis Stephens, in Shaw's Gen. Zool., Vol. XII., pt. i., p. 83, 1824. New name for 



S. cinerea Gueldenstadt. 



Limosa recurvirostra Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat., Vol. II., p. 181, 1827. New name for S. 



cinerea Gueldenstadt. 



Limicola Indiana Lesson, Traite d'Orn., livr. 7, p. 554, April 9th, 1831 : India. 



Totanus terekius Seebohm, Geogr. Distr. Charadr., p. 369, 1888. New name for T. cinerea. 



Terekia cinerea australis Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. III., pt. 4, p. 69, July 21st, 1917 : 



Melville Island, Northern Territory. 



DISTRIBUTION. Winter visitor to Australia, breeding in the northern hemisphere. 



Adult male in summer-plumage. General colour above, brown with a bronzy 

 sheen, the feathers lined with brown shaft-streaks on the head, back, and scapulars, 

 some of the short scapulars almost entirely black, which looks like two brown parallel 

 lines ; lesser, median, and greater wing-coverts for the most part dark brown, like 

 the bastard-wing, primary-coverts and quills, the latter paler and inclining to 

 whitish on the inner webs, shaft of outer primary white ; secondary -quills greyish- 

 brown broadly tipped with white, becoming less white on the inner ones, the long 

 innermost secondaries like the back ; rump and upper tail-coverts ash-grey ; the 

 long upper tail-coverts barred with buff, and dark brown on the margins of the 

 feathers ; tail-feathers ashy-grey becoming lighter on the outermost ones ; the eye 

 is encircled by a ring of short white feathers ; sides of face, sides of neck, throat 

 and breast dull white streaked with dusky-brown ; abdomen and under tail-coverts 

 white like the axillaries and under wing-coverts, the small marginal coverts on 

 the under -wing brown, tipped with white ; bill black, base olive-brown ; iris brown ; 

 feet, tarsus, and lower tibia dull yellow. Total length 290 mm. ; culmen 50, wing 

 136, tail 57, tarsus 30. 



Adult female in summer-plumage. Similar to the adult male but larger. 



Adult in winter-plumage. Differs from the adult in summer-plumage in being 

 greyer and less bronzy above. 



Immature. Differs from the adult in having the base of the bill yellowish 

 instead of brown, the head and hind-neck grey with scarcely any perceptible dark 

 shaft-streaks ; the dark markings on the back less pronounced, the rump paler grey, 

 and the sides of face, throat and fore-neck more faintly streaked. 



Nestling in down. Upper-surface greyish-buff ; a broad black longitudinal 

 line along the middle of the back ; a narrow black streak from the fore-head over the 

 middle of the crown on to the hind -neck ; loral streak and a narrow line beyond 

 the eye also black ; entire under parts creamy-white. 



Young partly fledged. The feathers on the sides of the breast, back, scapulars, 

 and tail grey tinged with sandy-buff, and black shaft-lines ; the crown of the head 

 similar but more minutely marked ; fore-head whitish ; loral streak black ; lesser, 

 median, and greater upper wing-coverts blackish like the primary-coverts and 

 quills ; the greater coverts broadly tipped with white ; hind-neck, throat, and fore- 

 neck covered with grey down ; abdomen white, down still adhering to the feathers 

 of the abdomen, under tail-coverts, and tail. 



Nest. A depression in the grass. 



Eggs. Clutch, four ; surface glossy ; ground-colour pale stone, sparingly 

 covered all over, but more at the larger end, with medium -sized blotches of dark 



