Additions to the Acifaiina of Ceijlon, 401 



oppoi tmiity of procuring further examples, and perhaps securing 

 one or two in summer dress. 



249 />/§.— Tringa Temminckii, Leisler. 



A female ; I shot this addition to our list on the 1st of No- 

 vember last; at Tamblegam, near Trincomalie. It was among a 

 small flock of T. salina, Pallas, frequenting a muddy stream that 

 flowed through some paddy flelds. 



Length, 6"1 ; wing, 39 ; tarsus, 0'7 ; mid toe, with claw, 

 0"75 ; bill, at front, 0"67 ; iris, brown ; bill, black, lightish at the 

 base of under mandible; legs and feet, olive; joints and toes, 

 bluish. 



In my specimen the first primary shaft is white ; the second 

 and third brown, with a slightly paler interval on the terminal 

 half; the two outer tail feathers are pure white throughout^ the 

 third \^ faintly sullied on the external web. 



While writing on Tringa, it may be as well to supplement 

 Mr. Hume's interesting notes on, and diagnosis of, T. salina, 

 Pallas,=7'. siibminuta, Middendorff, and 1. minnta, Leisler, con- 

 tained at page 342, Stray Feathers, 1872, with my own ex- 

 perience of the two species in Ceylon. Both are found here, but 

 the latter is the most numerous, though perhaps more restricted 

 in its distribution. T. minuta is very numerous on the North 

 and North-East as well as on the South-East Coasts, frequenting 

 the edges of salt lakes, estuaries, and the leways"^ of the latter 

 region, and afiecting the foreshores or portions left bare by the 

 tide, while P. salina has a partiality for the salt marshes bound- 

 ing the foreshores, as wsll as the edges of streams leading into 

 the marshes. I have likewise obtained it in newly-ploughed pad- 

 dy fields, in the South- West of Ceylon — a district, as a getieral 

 rule, quite devoid of Tringce and all Totani, save T. glareola — • 

 and for this reason I hold its range to be less restricted than that 

 of P. minuta.-\ I did not procure it at Hawbautota last year, 

 while collecting there in March, all specimens of Tringa's which 

 I there shot, proving to be minuta, but this must be viewed as 

 mere accident, for it is sure to occur in a district so rich in the 

 tribe as the South-East of Ceylon. 



Touching the distinctive characteristics of the two species, I find, 

 that, besides the long middle toe, and the solitary sullied white 

 first primary shaft, the dark forehead, and very dark spear-shap- 

 ed (or pointed) feathers of the interscapular region as well as the 



* Lagoons, from which the salt is collected. 



t Holdswoi-th in his Catalogue, Ceylon Birds, says of minuta that it is common 

 on the N. W. Coast, and that Salina is rare, proving the latter, though of more 

 extended range, to be everywhere less numerous thau its congener. 



