LIMICOLA PLATYRHYXCHA. 897 



with greyish, as in winter ; lower back dull black ; upper tail-coverts and four central tail-feathers deep black, 

 tipped with rufous ; feathers at the side of the rump and the lateral covert-feathers broadly margined with white ; 

 quills darker than in winter ; lores and a broad stripe passing under the eye and over the ears blaek-brown ; 

 chin white ; feathers of the face, fore neck, and its sides blackish grey in the centre, and broadly edged with 

 white, the black centres set off above with rufous ; beneath, from the chest, pure white, as in winter. 

 An example from Amoy (wing 4-45 inches) is more broadly edged with rufous than the above ; but this colour is 

 confined to the same parts. 



Young, in down (Muonioniska). " A narrow stripe from the base of the upper mandible, widening towards the centre 

 of the crown until it covers the whole hind crown, black tinged with chestnut, and on the hind crown spotted 

 with white ; upper parts generally black, minutely spotted with white, and marked with chestnut on the sides ; 

 sides of the head and fore crown and underparts white, tinged with buff on the throat ; a black patch before the 

 eye, below which a black line passes along the side of the head to the nape." (Dresser.) 



Obs. The eastern form of this Stint inhabiting China differs slightly from the western and European bird in having 

 more rufous on the upper surface, the edgings of the head- and back-feathers being broader and brighter than in 

 typical Limicola plabyrhyncha. Mr. Dresser has consequently separated it under the name of L. sibirica (P. Z. S. 

 1876, p. 674). I see but little difference in Chinese examples I have examined and the one above described, and 

 I scarcely think the eastern form worthy of separation. The distribution of colour is the same, simply intensi- 

 fying as the bird ranges to the eastward. In winter he says it cannot be separated easily from the European 

 form, though it appears to him a trifle paler, and somewhat longer in the wing and tarsus. Mr. Hume's measure- 

 ments of fifteen specimens from India and Burmah vary in the wing from 3-9 to 4-35 inches, and in the tarsus 

 from 0-85 to 0-94. In this series, some of which might be supposed to belong to the eastern form, the length of 

 tarsus does not always correspond with that of the wing ; for example, there is a c? (Kurrachee), wing 3-9 iuches, 

 tarsus 0-85 ; d (Andamans), wing 4-32, tarsus ouly 0-88. 



Distribution. — This curious Stint is a rare straggler to Ceylon, and has only been, to my knowledge, 

 procured on two occasions. Layard obtained two specimens at Point Pedro ; and Mr. S. Bligh writes me that 

 he met with a few this last cold season in the Yala district, and shot a female (the specimen now before me) 

 on the 21st of February last (1879). It was met with at the upper end of the large salt lagoon behind the 

 town of Hambantota, and was in company with some Curlew- and Little Stints. It is probable that limited 

 numbers, perhaps more in some seasons than others, visit Ceylon ; but they naturally remain unnoticed amidst 

 the myriads of Stints that yearly come and go. 



In India, being a sea-coast bird almost entirely, its numbers are not nearly so great as those species already 

 noticed, and it is, according to Jerdon, rare in the south. Regarding all the notices of Broad-billed Stints in 

 ' Stray Feathers' to apply to the western form, we have Mr. Hume recording L. platyrhyncha as rare in the 

 Calcutta district, half a dozen specimens being all he noticed in the market in as many years. In the Irra- 

 waddy delta Dr. Armstrong says that it is " excessively common throughout the entire district lying between 

 the mouth of the Rangoon river and China Bakeer. It was also common along the margins of all the creeks 

 and nullahs in the vicinity, extending up the Rangoon river as far as the junction of the latter with its Pegu 

 tributary." In Tenasserim it is only a straggler ; the same gentleman procured it once at Amherst, but 

 Mr. Davison never met with it. At the Andamans it is likewise rare, for Mr. Davison only met with a few 

 associating with a small flock of Tringa minuta. It was not seen at the Nicobars. It has been obtained in 

 Java by Reinhardt, and doubtless wanders occasionally to Sumatra down the Malay Peninsula. Salvadori 

 records it doubtfully from Borneo ; and I am not aware that it has been seen in any other island in Malasia. 

 It is probable that all these Malay birds belong to the so-called eastern form obtained in China, Hainan, and 



Formosa by Swinhoe. 



In regard to North-west India, Mr. Hume states that it is very common in the Kurrachee harbour and 

 along the Mekran and Sindh coasts ; but he has no evidence of its being found anywhere inland, for in an 

 examination of the great rivers of Upper India he never saw a specimen in the " Central Provinces, Oudh, 

 Behar, the North-west Provinces, Rajpootana, or Sindh above Kotree;" nor has he ever met with a specimen 

 in numerous collections from those provinces. We may therefore conclude, as it is not recorded from the 

 Deccan nor by Mr. Ball from the Godaveri-Ganges district, that it is purely a littoral form. 



