588 SCOLOPACID^E. 



bent towards the under one. Nostrils lateral, linear, pierced longitudinally in a 

 groove. Legs long, slender, naked above the tarsal joint ; three toes in front, one 

 behind ; the middle toe united to the outer toe as far as the first articulation by a 

 membrane, which sometimes extends as far as the second articulation. Wings 

 moderate ; the first quill-feather the longest. 



ALTHOUGH but few records of the occurrence of this bird 

 appear in print, and it is considered rare as a species, it is 

 not uncommon in the London market in autumn and in 

 winter ; where, however, specimens in the singular sooty 

 black colour of the plumage assumed in summer are un- 

 known. It is seen occasionally in spring, on the way to its 

 breeding ground in high northern latitudes ; but young 

 birds of the year are more frequently obtained on their 

 return, and in some instances a parent bird is taken, still 

 bearing a portion of the darker colour which pervades both 

 sexes during the breeding season. Pennant records a speci- 

 men killed in Anglesey. Mr. E. H. Rodd, of Penzance, 

 has in the autumn of the present year 1840, obtained one, 

 a young bird of this season, in Cornwall. Montagu notices 

 two, both killed in Devonshire. Mr. Wm. Borrer, jun., 

 sent me notice of one obtained in April 1838, in the Isle of 

 Ely. The authors of the Catalogue of the Norfolk and 

 Suffolk Birds mention four: three shot in the vicinity 

 of Yarmouth, the fourth near Ipswich. Bewick and Mr. 

 Selby mention two killed in Northumberland. Mr. Hey- 

 sham has recorded two, both killed in autumn, in the 

 vicinity of Carlisle ; a third is mentioned to have occurred 

 on the coast near Whitehaven, and Mr. Thompson shot one 

 in Belfast Bay, in August 1823. The latest recent specimens 

 I have seen were two in the possession of Mr. Bartlett, ob- 

 tained in the autumn of the present year 1840, one of which 

 was an adult bird in an interesting state of change from the 

 summer to the winter dress, the whole of the under surface 

 of the bird being a mixture of black and white. The figure 



