200 GRALL^E. 



both ways are gradual ; they are changes of colour, not 

 changes of feathers ; and hence, the birds may be met with 

 in every intermediate stage. But the feathers which variable 

 birds get after the moult, are never so finely coloured as the 

 breeding plumage ; they are intermediate between that and 

 the colour of the young. The birds build near the margins 

 of the water ; the eggs are four, of a dull straw colour, with 

 brown spots. 



TEMMINCK'S TKINGA (Tringa Temmmckii). 



This is a rare as well as a small species ; and the few 

 specimens which have been observed in England, have oc- 

 curred in the autumn or winter, and not far from the sea ; 

 but having been found at different periods of the season, they 

 have been in different states of plumage ; and thus, from tlie 

 natural desire of every observer to add something new, they 

 have not unfrequently been described as distinct species. 

 The bird has been called the least snipe, and the little sand- 

 piper ; but if the character of the bill (the best of all cha- 

 racters when sufficiently marked) is to be depended on, it is 

 neither snipe nor sand-piper, but has, like all the genuine 

 tringas, a bill something intermediate between the two. 



It is a lightly and elegantly formed little bird, about six 

 inches in length, and weighing about six drachms. Its 

 bill is rather less than three quarters of an inch long, very 

 slender, very slightly bent, and a little thickened towards the 

 point, and of a dusky brown. The irides are nearly the 

 same colour as the bill ; the feet are browner. 



The colours of the breeding plumage are, the head black, 

 with rust-coloured margins, a light streak over the eye, and 

 a dark spot before it ; back and scapulars dusky black, the 

 feathers margined with greyish white on the exterior, and 

 rust-colour on the interior webs ; but in some, all the mar- 

 gins rust-coloured. The quills dusky with white margins ; 



