voL.vni.] HABITS OF THE LITTLE STINT. 207 



intense as the hatcliing time approaches that the sitting 

 bird may be caught in the hand. On July 16th, I 

 watched a cock Little Stint flying to and fro between 

 a certain piece of marsh and the bank of a little stream 

 about fifty yards away. Each time he carried in his bill 

 sometliing which I presently made out to be an egg-shell. 

 His nest, which was on a little ridge among the wiUows, 

 contained three moist chicks. The light was too poor 

 for photography, so I sat down by the nest to watch 

 the bird. When I laid my cap over the chicks, he crept 

 underneath it and brooded quite contentedly. Presently 

 I put out my hand gently, and caught him where he sat. 

 He fluttered a little, but when I released him he returned 

 at once to the young. 



I procured both male and female Little Stints at the 

 nest, but out of eight nests of which I have records, 

 six of the birds were cocks. I do not know whether 

 the work of incubation is shared between the sexes, or 

 whether one parent undertakes the whole task. I saw 

 only one bird near the nest, but later on, when the 

 young were hatched, both parents appeared. When the 

 breeding-ground was approached the old birds became 

 rather wild and demonstrative, flying round and round 

 the intruder while they uttered their sharp '' drrrt drrrt" 

 note. 



Before the young were able to fly, the family 

 joined with other broods, until by the first week in 

 August flocks were formed. It was difiicult to say when 

 the return migration took place. The bulk of the birds 

 had gone by August 25th when a severe south-easterly 

 gale swept over the river, but on September 1st I 

 saw two or three Little Stints in almost complete winter 

 plumage feeding on the sand-flats in company with some 

 Dunlins. The two species looked rather comic, paddling 

 side by side — ^like quarto and pocket editions of the 

 same work. As Seebohm says, the Little Stint is much 

 more like a Dunlin than a Stint. The young in down 

 resemble Dunlin chicks and not those of the Temminck's 



