The Zoologist — September, 1870. 2273 



t 



feathers with white shaft, all the other quill-feathers with dusky shafts. 

 Tertial feathers reach to very near the eud of the primaries. Tail, 

 three outer feathers on each side almost white ; the first outside white 

 with a faint dusky spot on the outer web ; the second white, with a 

 narrow dusky streak on outer web. Little Stint. Colour, more varied. 

 Tarsus, black, longer and stouter. Wings, all the quill-feathers with 

 white shafts. Tertial feathers do not reach within a quarter of an inch 

 of end of primaries. Tail, three outer feathers on each side all pale 

 gray ; no white." — Harting, p. 199. The diflFerence in the colour of the 

 shafts of the quill-feathers was first pointed out by Mr. Wheelwright.] 



[At p. 349 of his ' Spring and Summer in Lapland,' Mr. Wheel- 

 wright describes the nest and eggs of Temminck's stint : — " The nest 

 was placed on a tussock of rushy grass in a swampy part of the 

 meadow and consisted of nothing more than a few bits of dry grass. 

 The eggs were four in number and very pyriform ; their colour cho- 

 colate-brown, covered with a deeper shade of small fine spots all over."] 



American Stint. — An example killed in Marazion marsh, October 

 lOlh, 1854. This is the first recorded British specimen (See Zool. 

 1854). This rare example was killed by Mr. W. H. Vingoe. 



[Mr, Rodd has asked me to communicate some particulars with 

 reference to the American stint referred to by him in the 'Zoologist' 

 for December (S. S. 1920), which was shot by me on the 22nd of 

 September last, and I have much pleasure in complying with his 

 request. I observed the bird on several successive mornings before 

 I obtained it on a salt-marsh lying between Northam Burrows and the 

 estuary of the rivers Taw and Torridge, and on every occasion it was 

 alone. It seemed very active and restless, and was rather difficult of 

 approach. When it rose it always repeated a short hurried note, 

 similar to that of the two other species, though perhaps rather shriller 

 and more frequently reiterated (differing in this particular from Mr. 

 Vingoe's specimen, which was silent when it rose). Its flight was 

 strong and rapid for so small a bird, and struck me as being something 

 like that of the common sandpiper, which bird indeed (except with 

 regard to the vibratory motion of the body peculiar to that species) it 

 somewhat resembled in its movements when on the ground. It always 

 flew away across the water out of sight and at a great height, but it 

 invariably returned to the same spot where I had first observed it. I 

 had no diflBculty in identifying the bird as distinct from either of the 

 two British species of stint, and a careful comparison of it with the 

 description of Mr. Vingoe's specimen of the American stint in 



