SCOLOPACID.S:. 377 



feathers there is a dark, almost black, streak just 

 inside the white margins; the rump and tail-coverts 

 distinctly barred with ash-grey and white ; the 

 primary quills and some of their greater coverts are 

 dusky, the shafts white; the secondaries and some 

 of the greater coverts and tertials ash-grey, regularly 

 marked on the margins with ash-grey and dusky; 

 the tail is ash-grey, the outside feathers slightly 

 barred with dusky ; the chin white ; the throat and 

 breast are white, slightly clouded with pale ash-grey ; 

 all the rest of the under parts are white. The bird 

 here described is very nearly in the winter plumage 

 of the adult as described by Yarrell, the only differ- 

 ence being that Yarrell does not notice the dark 

 marks inside the light margins on the lesser wing- 

 coverts, and describes the front of the neck only as 

 tinged with ash- colour, and the breast as white, like 

 the rest of the under parts : at this time of the year 

 the beak of the adult bird is black, except at the 

 base, where it is bright red ; the irides dark brown ; 

 legs and toes vermilion-red; claws black. The 

 summer plumage is very different : the beak is 

 nearly black, but the base of the lower mandible is 

 dark red ; the irides dark brown ; over the eye the 

 eyelid is white ; the whole of the head and neck all 

 round sooty black ; back, scapulars, all the wing- 

 coverts, secondaries and tertials sooty black, with 

 well-defined triangular spots of pure white along the 

 margin of the web of each feather, which is also 



8x8 



