510 



SCOLOPACIDJ:. 



present name. In Sussex it goes by the name of ' Titterel,' 

 owing to its note, and for the same reason Whimbrels are 

 often spoken of in the south and west as ' the Seven 

 Whistlers,' the rippling whistle being repeated seven times. 



In the adult in spring the beak is brownish-black, pale 

 brown at the base of the under mandible ; the irides dark 

 brown ; the top of the head dark brown, with a buff streak 

 passing backwards over the top to the occiput; from the 

 angle of the gape to the eye a mottled brown streak ; over 

 that, and passing in continuation over the eye and the ear- 

 coverts, is a light-coloured streak ; the feathers of the neck, 

 all round, brownish-white with dark central streaks ; inter- 

 scapulars, scapulars, and wing-coverts, dusky-brown, with 

 paler margins ; wing-primaries dark brown, the outer ones 

 distinctly marked with white notches on both upper and 

 under side of the inner webs ; the secondaries mottled with 

 white ; rump white with a few streaks of brown ; tail- 

 feathers ash-brown with four or five well-defined darker 

 transverse bars ; chin white ; chest pale brown, each feather 

 with a dark brown central streak ; breast and belly nearly 

 white; axillary plumes white, with broad and somewhat 

 arrow-headed bars of brown ; flanks dull white, barred 

 transversely with brown ; under tail-coverts nearly white, 

 with brown longitudinal streaks ; legs and toes bluish-black ; 

 claws black. 



In a young bird shot in Somersetshire on the 17th Sep- 

 tember, and sent to the Editor by Mr. Cecil Smith, the edges 

 of the feathers of the back are spotted with buffy-white, 

 and on the wing-coverts and secondaries this colour is so 

 pronounced as to take the form of bars, thus producing a 

 remarkably checquered appearance, whence its local name 

 of ' checquer-bird.' The upper primaries are boldly mar- 

 gined and notched with dull white, but the inner webs of 

 the larger quill-feathers are merely freckled with black and 

 white, and not distinctly notched as in the adult. The bars 

 to the axillary plumes are narrower and less extensive ; the 

 tail-feathers are more buff-coloured, and the dark bars are 

 more defined and numerous than in the old birds. 



