890 TRINGA SUBMJNUTA. 



A series of six skins in summer plumage, from China, correspond with the Amoor example in having no rufous on the 

 chest; their plumage is of precisely (he same character, but varies in individuals as regards the intensity of the 

 upper-surface colouring, and in the amount of striation on the chest and sides of the neck. The length of the 

 middle toe and claw varies from 0-93 to 0-97 inch in these. 



Young. 1 have not been able to examine either a nestling or young bird in first plumage of this species, and I am 

 not aware that the former has ever been procured. 



Obs. As this Stint does not assume a rufous chest or throat in summer, Pallas's name rufieollis (Eeis. Euss. Reiehs, 

 iii. p. 700, 1776) caunot apply to it. ] [e described, I am convinced, a specimen of the eastern form, hitherto styled 

 T. albescens*, in breeding-plumage, "subtus collum totum ad pectus usque intense ferrugineum " being his expression. 

 Pallas described many years afterwards (Zoogr. ii. p. 19!), pi. 61, 1811-31, ex Pallas) a .Stint as T. salina, which 

 he identifies with T. rufieollis; and he says of it: — '•Jugulum ferrugineo-nebulosum album, punctis fuseis in 

 masculo crebrioribus." Pallas may have either rightly or wrongly identified the second bird with the first ; and 

 this description might perhaps be held to apply to the Long-toed Stint as much as to an example of the rufous- 

 chested one in partial plumage. The main point is that no mention of the toes is made: and 1 therefore maintain 

 that the term salina should not be considered to apply to the Long-toed Stint. Middendorff, however, is particular 

 to speak of the length of the middle toe, and even gives a drawing of it, which measures the same as that of a 

 Ceylon specimen. 



Horsfield's Totanus damaeensis does not seem to me to be sufficiently well characterized to indicate the present species. 

 It is as follows : — " T. supra pallide cinereo-fuscus, subtus albus, remigibus fuseis, rachidibus primorum albis 

 aliarum fuscescentibus. Long. 6| poll." "Supra pallide cinereo-fuscus" applies more to the upper surface of 

 T. temmincki or even T. albescens than to the dark-centred light-edged feathers characteristic of the present bird. 

 " Subtus albus ": no mention is made here of the darkish chest ; and this applies more to T. rufieollis in winter 

 plumage. " Remigibus fuseis, rachidibus primorum albis aliarum fuscescentibus," applies to the present species, 

 but so also to the next, T. temmincki. Finally, the length is too great for any of these small Stints, except 

 perhaps T. rufieollis. As further proof that Horsfield was not very clear as to the species he was describing, I 

 may remark that there are two specimens in the India Museum labelled in his own handwriting Tntun us damaeensis, 

 one of which is the large form of T. minuta, and the other the present species in moult, with the 1st primary 

 undeveloped. I prefer, therefore, to adopt Middendorff s name, so concise is he in describing the species and 

 alluding to the long toes. 



Distribution. — This species is, from all accounts, less common in India than in Ceylon. It is plentiful 

 all round the north coast of the island, in the Trincomalie district, and about the salt lakes of the Yala 

 and Hambantota country. I likewise found it in newly-ploughed paddy-fields in pairs or in small troops 

 of three to six, with T. glareola, in the Galle district, in the month of January ; and it was the only species 

 of Stint which I noticed on that part of the island, as I never met with it on the west coast south of Madampe. 

 A noteworthy capture of an individual is that by Mr. Bligh, who procured it in May 1876 at the foot of the 

 Catton valley, at an elevation of 2000 feet. This bird was evidently on passage to the north, and was 

 making its way from the Hambantota district across the Central Province. In the north, where it is common, 

 it is not so plentiful as T. minuta, as this latter species musters there in great numbers ; and at Aripu I observe 

 that Mr. Holdsworth only procured two specimens, which were the first recorded from the island. Layard 

 seems to have passed it over, or else did not distinguish it from the Little Stint, for where he collected largely, 

 in the Jaffna peninsula, it is tolerably common. I met with examples of it at Hambantota in July, but they r 

 showed no signs of summer plumage. 



Until quite recently this Stint was not noticed in India. Jerdon calls attention to it as an allied species 

 to the next, and merely mentions that it is found in the more eastern parts of India and Burmak. Writing 

 in 1873, Mr. Hume remarks that he has never seen it in continental India ; but two years later he records 

 it from Pegu, and publishes Mr. Oates's remark that it " is very common during the cold weather on sand 



* The synonymy of this Stint, referred to in the previous article, I conceive to be as follows : — 

 Tringa rufieollis, Pallas, Eeis. Euss. Reichs, iii. p. 700, " Dauria " (1776). 

 Tringa salina, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-As. ii. p. 199, pi. 61 (1811-31). 

 Tringa albescens, Temm. PI. Col. 41. fig. 2 (1824). 

 ? Schoeniclus australis, Gould, B. of Austr. vi. pi. 31 (1848). 



