BRITISH BIRDS. 301 



sprinkled with grey : the lower part of the back 

 dark brown : rump and vent black ; and the tail 

 ash, edged with white. The ridge and lesser 

 coverts of the wings are of a pale rufous brown, 

 crossed obliquely by the beauty-spot, w r hich is a 

 tri-coloured bar of purplish red, white, and black: 

 the greater quills are dusky: legs orange red. 

 The wings of the female are barred like those of 

 the male, but the colours are of a much duller 

 cast, and her breast, instead of his beautiful mark- 

 ings, is only plain brown, spotted with black. 



Birds of this species breed in the desert marshes 

 of the north, and remain there throughout the 

 spring and summer. On the approach of winter 

 they leave the European and Siberian parts of 

 Russia, Sweden, &c., and commonly make their 

 appearance about the month of November, on the 

 French, British, and other more southern shores, 

 where they remain till the end of February, and 

 then return to their northern haunts. They are 

 very shy and wary birds, feeding only in the night, 

 when they make a hoarse jarring noise, and lurk- 

 ing concealed among the rushes in the watery 

 waste during the day, in which they are seldom 

 seen on the wing. The foregoing figure was made 

 from a Wycliffe specimen. 



