TEBEKIA CINEEEA. 837 



to 5-2, expanse 17-0 to 17-25 ; tail 2-0 to 2-5 ; tarsus 1-1 to 1-15 ; bill at front 1-75 to 2-0. The bill varies much 

 in length ; Schrenck gives that of an Amoor-river example at 1'54 (1 inch 6| lines). 

 Iris brown ; bill blackish brown, orange-yellow at base ; legs and feet orange-yellow. 



Winter plumage (December, Kurrachee). Head, hind neck, back, scapulars, tertials, inner median and greater coverts, 

 and tail grey-brown, the feathers with dark shaft-lines, and the shorter scapulars blackish brown at the centre, 

 blending into the surrounding paler colour; margins of the upper tail-coverts and rump-feathers whitish, with an 

 inner border of darker brown than the rest of the feather ; lesser, outer median and greater, and the primary- 

 coverts dark brown ; primaries the same, the first shaft and the inner edges of the feathers white ; secondaries 

 dark brown, with most of the inner webs and the tips white, this colour including the terminal half inch of the 

 outer webs ; tips of the inner primaries white ; the three lateral tail-feathers with white inner and outer margins, 

 occupying most of the outer web of the lateral one ; forehead, eye-stripe, and front of face whitish ; lores brownish : 

 ear-coverts striped with brown, with a whitish patch just above ; throat and under surface white ; fore neck, 

 except just down the centre, with narrow brownish shaft-lines ; under wing and axillaries white, the bases of the 

 feathers along the edge brown. 



A February specimen has the shorter scapulars with more brown, and it is continued in rather narrow shaft-stripes to 

 the longer feathers. 



Summer plumage,. Asiatic and European birds both show the same insignificant change in the plumage during the 

 breeding-season ; and examples in Mr. Dresser's collection correspond with Chinese specimens. A Shanghai 

 example in the Swinhoe collection (3rd May) differs but little from the above winter specimens ; the plumage is 

 slightly darker, and the shaft-stripes on the interscapular region are bolder, and the dark spear-shaped centres 

 of the shorter scapulars are blacker and extend in moderately broad stripes to the longer feathers ; dark brown 

 feathers are appearing on the interscapular region ; the upper tail-coverts are pencilled and indented with dark 

 brown, and the fore neck and chest have narrow mesial brown stripes on the feathers. This is the commence- 

 ment of the summer plumage, which seems to be acquired by a change in the colour of the feathers, combined 

 with a partial moult, as is the case with the rest of the family. 



Mr. Ball remarks, with regard to the above-mentioned specimen (May), that it shows no approach to the summer 

 plumage ; but Mr. Swinhoe instances an example (16th April) killed at Shanghai which is in summer plumage ; 

 it is probable, however, that this bird is no further advanced than the one just described. 



Young nestling, in down (coll. Dresser). Buff-grey above, mottled and marked with black, principally down the 

 back; a bold stripe through the lores, continued behind the eye; sides of the rump marked with black; a stripe 

 over the crown. There are no very characteristic markings in this nestling. Bill at front 0-4 inch. 



Distribution. — This curious Sandpiper is a comparatively recent addition to the avifauna of Ceylon, as it 

 had not been noticed in the island prior to Mr. Holdsworth's meeting with it. He chronicles his discovery as 

 follows : — " I obtained one specimen in winter plumage, out of a flock of five, in April 1869 ; they were in a 

 small swamp near the sea at Aripu." It is perhaps a frequent straggler to Ceylon in the cool weather, 

 arriving and departing unnoticed, as small Waders are but little shot in the north. 



It is a bird of singular distribution, being scattered more or less over Asia, extending to Australia ; Eastern 

 Europe and Eastern Africa are taken into its range, but it avoids the western side of both continents. It is 

 not generally diffused throughout India, being for the most part a shore-bird. Jerdon writes as follows con- 

 cerning it : — " This neat-plumaged little Sandpiper is not very abundant in the south of India, but is met 

 with more frequently towards the north." Mr. Ball records but one specimen from the coast of the Orissa 

 Province ; and Mr. Hume has only once met with it in the Calcutta market, when an entire flock of fifty had 

 been netted. From Burmah it is not recorded ; and in Tenasserim it is found rarely along the coast and creeks 

 of the central portion of the province. Mr. Davison obtained it at Amherst, Thatone, and Tavoy ; and he 

 likewise met with it commonly about Port Blair, in the Andamans, but did not see it in the Nicobar group. 

 In the north-west of India it is a common bird on the sea-coast in some parts. In Kurrachee harbour and 

 on the Mekran coast Mr. Hume found it abundant. Turning eastward again, in which direction it has a 

 wide range towards the south, we find it recorded from Kopah, in the Malay Peninsula, as also from Java and 

 Sumatra, in the former of which several naturalists, including Horsfield, procured it, and in the latter Baffles 

 observed it, and, taking it for a new species, described it under the name of Scolopax sumatrana. In Borneo 

 it has been obtained in Sarawak. 



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