8G8 TRINGOIDES HYPOLEUCUS. 



pale brown, with deep white tips, a subterminaJ band of dark brown, and the outer webs barred with brown, the 

 white predominating on the lateral feat hers ; a whitish supereilium extending forward to the bill ; through the Ion is 

 a brown stripe continued behind the eye ; cheeks and sides of neck greyish brown, with dark central stripes ; sides 

 of the chest brownish ; chin, fore neck and under surface, the upper part of throat, and from the centre of the 

 chest to the under tail-coverts unmarked ; the fore neck with narrow brown shaft-streaks ; axillary plume and 

 median under wing-coverts pure white ; lesser under wing-coverts white, with dark bases. 



Summer plumage. Male (Cardiganshire, June). Length 7'8 inches ; wing 3'0, expanse 9-3; tail 2*3; tarsus 1-0; 



middle toe 0-82 ; bill to gape 1-1. 

 Bill olive-brown, tip blackish, lower mandible and gape pale olivaceous fleshy, tip dusky ; legs and feet pale leaden 



grey, toes tinged with yellowish. 

 Head and upper surface a darker brown than in winter, and illumined with a more brilliant green lustre, equally strong 



on the wing-coverts and back; the interscapular region, scapulars, and tertials with wavy cross bars of brown ; 



rump unmarked ; upper tail-coverts crossed with brown ; white portion of the inner web almost obsolete on the 



2nd primary, and much smaller on the 3rd than the 4th ; face, ear-coverts, and loral stripe darker than in the 



above ; stripes of the fore neck and chest bolder, and these parts washed with brownish ; stripes also present on 



the chin. 



Obs. The darker and more glossy summer dress is acquired, as in other Scolopacine birds, by a change of colour ; but 

 a partial moult takes place, as in other genera, in the spring. I have March examples killed in Ceylon with here 

 and there a new feather. Schrenek, in writing of Amoor-river specimens, notices that the white patch on the 

 inner webs of the primaries extends to the 2nd quill, while in European examples it terminates at the 3rd. There 

 is doubtless a tendency to more of the white coloration in Asiatic birds than in European ; but the latter 

 frequently have the white patch on the 2nd quill in a greater or less degree, and yearling birds in Ceylon only 

 have a small amount of white on that quill, so that, to a certain degree, it is a characteristic of age. 



Young ( nestling in down). Ashy grey, mottled with black on the back, and with a central stripe down the back ; through 

 the lores a black line, and another on the head. 



Bird of (he year (September, Ceylon). Bill blackish brown, base slaty; legs and feet slaty greenish, toes dusky. 

 Brown of the head and back darker than in adults, and the head and hind neck with the shaft-stripes indistinct ; 

 the feathers of the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts with regular subterminal blackish-brown bars and buff-grey 

 tips, the barring broadest on the scapulars and wing-coverts ; upper tail-coverts marked in the same way, but 

 not so boldly : the ground-colour of the lateral feathers wholly white, barred completely across with blackish 

 brown ; secondaries very deeply tipped with white, and the inner primaries narrowly tipped with the same ; 

 frontal feathers edged with whitish ; fore neck less conspicuously striped with brown than in adults ; towards the 

 middle of the season (January) the whitish or buff tips wear off, and in the following March the immature 

 plumage is chiefly noticeable on the wing-coverts. The yearling barred and tipped dress is not fully acquired 

 until .September, specimens shot in that month still having partly green tail-feathers. 



Obs. There is considerable variation in the colour of the light tipping on the wing-coverts. In a large series of 

 immature birds examined in the Swinhoe collection from China, I find that they are buff in some specimens and 

 whitish in others. A dozen individuals in this series vary in the wing from 4-0 to 4*5 inches. Indian and 

 Yarkand specimens fall within my Ceylonese limits of measurement. 



Tringoides macularius, the Spotted Sandpiper, is the American representative of this species. 



Distribution. — This elegant and widely-spread Sandpiper is very abundant in Ceylon, being diffused 

 throughout all the low country, and an inhabitant of the borders of streams and rivers in the Central 

 Provinces up to a general altitude of 3000 feet. Since, however, the Nuwara Lake has been formed, it finds 

 its way to that elevated locality. On the Maha Eiiya, at Horton Plains, I did not meet with it; but it 

 may occasionally be found there. It is a winter visitant to Ceylon, arriving very early in August, and 

 departing as late as the last week in May or beginning of June. At Colombo I have seen it during the first 

 week in June, and at Kandelay tank on the 3rd of August, by the end of which month a good many used to 

 be seen about Trincomalie. It would seem, therefore, that it can scarcely migrate to Northern Asia in so 

 short a time ; and I can hardly believe that some do not remain throughout the year in the island, though it 



