846 NoTES ON SOME BIRDS COLLECTED IN THE EASTERN OR 
ance to that portion of the bird. The tail, which is short 
and nearly even, is greyish white, margined and tipped with 
pure white, the two central feathers alone are brownish, and 
more narrowly margined with white than the others. The 
wings are long and pointed ; the primary quills and 
their coverts are ofa rich hair brown, faintly margined 
with lighter brown on their outer webs. Secondary quills 
with their coverts, dusky brown, each with a well-defined 
white margin and tip, which, however, is much narrower on 
the quills, but is broader and clearer on the coverts. The 
tertiaries are long and plume-like, of an ashy brown color, the 
shafts being of a much darker color than the webs. Along 
the entire length of the radius and angle of the shoulder, there 
is a well-defined line of demarcation between the dark hair 
brown of the upper, and the pure white of the under surface. 
The shaft of the first quill feather is pure white, all the others 
being of a more or less pronounced brown. First quill longest, 
second about a quarter of an inch shorter. The bill is long, 
broad, and massive, slightly recurved for its terminal third, and 
with both mandibles grooved one for a little more than half 
their length. The end of the upper mandible is slightly expanded, 
and has its point bentdown over the lower. The nostrils 
are linear and sub-basal, a little over quarter of an inch in 
length, and nearly that distance from the most anterior 
feathered portion. 
The tarsi are short and somewhat slender. The toes also 
are slender, the three anterior being united to each other by a 
membrane, which, extending on either side of the middle toe 
from the distal extremity of its proximal phalanx, reaches well 
down to a similar point in the inner, and nearly to the distal 
extremity of the second proximal phalanx in the outer. 
[The present species which I believe to be new* is a very 
puzzling one. ‘The following is a brief diagnosis :— 
In winter plumage resembles generally Totanus canescens, 
but has a much broader and more massive bill, a much shorter 
tarsus (male 1°85 ; female, 1°65), and the webs between the 3 
anterior toes very much more developed. Wings, 8,73; 2, 7:0; 
bill at front, §, 2°13; 9, 1°93. 
It is by no means a typical Yotanus, and in its short tarsi 
-and much webbed feet recalls Pseudoscolopax semipalmatus, but 
then the bill is much shorter (in a specimen of this latter now 
before me the bill is 2°9 at front) and of a different character, 
wholly wanting the tumid multi-pitted ends of that species, 
* If not new, I am responsible for the creation of an useless synonyme and not 
Dr. Armstrong. Prima facie it is difficult to believe that it can be new but I have 
diligently worked up the whole group and can find nothing that agrees well with 
our specimens.—Ed, 
