3^ 44 Contritutions to the Ornithology of India, }^e. 



By the end of May, when I think they leave us, these birds 

 are in full breeding plumage, and at the beginning of Septem- 

 ber, when we again see them^ they have many of them lost but 

 little of the breeding dress. 



885.— Tringa Temminckii, Leisler, 



This little species though found throughout Sindh, (as indeed 

 it is throughout the whole of India during the cold season,) is 

 not nearly so common there as the preceding. It is readily dis- 

 tinguished from miimta, by the color of its legs and feet 

 which in winter are pale horny green, varying to dusky olive 

 yellow ; in summer, olive yellow ; while in minuta, they are black 

 at all seasons ; in winter and summer, respectively, the two or 

 three outer tail feathers on each side in Tem.mincldi are pure 

 white, in minuta, pale grey brown ; then in the winter plumage 

 in Temminckii, there is always a broad dusky or grey brown band 

 extending over the whole breast, which in minuta is confined to 

 the sides of the breast ; there is also the difference in color of the 

 shafts of the primaries which I have already noticed in speaking 

 of minuta and damacensis. None of our specimens shew the 

 slightest indication of summer plumage ; but specimens of this 

 species also, obtained in other parts of India, in May, exhibit the 

 full summer plumage which is, however, much duller and less 

 rufons than that of the corresponding stage in minuta. 



886.— Tringa platyrhyncha, T&mm, 



This species was very common in the Kurrachee Harbour, and 

 along the Mekran and Sindh Coasts. Dr. Jerdon says, that the 

 broad billed stint is tolerably common towards the north of 

 India, rare in the south. To the best of my belief it is exclu- 

 sively, with us, a maritime species ; no ornithologist probably has 

 been so much about the great rivers of Upper India as I have, 

 and I never once saw a specimen in the Central Provinces, Oudh, 

 Behar, the North-Western Provinces, Rajpootana, the Punjab 

 or Sindh above Kotree, nor have I ever met with a specimen 

 in any of the very numerous collections made in these provinces 

 which I have examined. 



Till I got to Kurrachee I had never seen the bird alive, and I 

 therefore measured a good number in the flesh ; the sexes do not 

 differ appreciably in size. Length, 6 "9 to 7*1 ; expanse, 12"9 to 

 13"2 ; tail, 1'3 to 1'8 ; wing, 4 to 4*2 ; wings, when closed, reach 

 from 0*2 to ()*3 beyond end of tail ; bill at front, 1*15 to 1'35 ; 

 tarsus, 0"85 to 0*97 ; weight, 1 to 1'15 oz. 



888.— Calidris arenaria, L, 



The sanderling is very common in the Kurrachee Harbour, 



