168 SPOTTED SAKDPIPEB. 



and is composed of short pieces of dry straw, or other such 

 materials as furnished by the locality. 



The eggs are of a pale reddish white colour, spotted and 

 speckled with grey and brown of a darker and lighter shade. 

 They are four in number. The young, as soon as hatched, 

 run about with wonderful speed. 



Male; length, about six inches and three quarters or over; 

 upper bill, dusky; the under one dusky towards*the tip, and 

 dull yellowish red about the base; a dusky streak goes from 

 it to and behind the eye. Iris, dusky; the eye-streak, 

 white; forehead, white. Head on the crown, neck on the 

 back, and nape, olivaceous brown, marked with dusky spots 

 of an elongated form on the feathers; neck on the sides, 

 chin, throat, and breast, white, with numerous distinct 

 round spots and transverse marks of dusky greenish brown 

 on the sides of the last-named; below, white. Back above, 

 olivaceous purple brown; in winter many of the feathers are 

 black, with greyish white margins, the rest grey, marbled 

 with pale brown, having the shafts alone black; below, 

 white. 



The wings have the first quill feather the longest; greater 

 wing coverts, grey, with darker centres to the feathers, and 

 tipped with white, some of the lesser wing coverts also grey, 

 with darker centres. Of the primaries the first is brownish 

 black, the shafts of it and the next, white; the rest with a 

 white spot on the middle of the inner web; secondaries, tipped 

 with white; tertiaries, grey, with black shafts, and barred 

 upon the outer part of the webs with black and pale ash 

 grey; in winter margined with white, and faintly barred with 

 a deeper shade of brown. The tail has, in summer, the two 

 middle feathers greyish white; in winter, white, marked with 

 zigzag lines and bars of pale brown ; the outer feathers wholly 

 white, except a longitudinal streak of brown upon the outer 

 web. The outer feather on each side has the outer web 

 white, barred with greenish black; upper tail coverts, white, 

 in summer barred with brown. Legs and toes, greenish grey ; 

 claws, dusky brown. 



The male and female are nearly alike. 



The young are at first covered with dull yellowish brown 

 down, with a streak of black behind the eye, and one down 

 the back. Subsequently indications of the spots appear, and 

 they shew themselves ostensibly in the winter. 



