CHAEADEIID^ TBINGA 407 



p. 383 ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 191 (1896) ; Beichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 233 

 (1900) ; Shortridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 203. 

 Limonites minuta, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 538 (1896). 



Description. Adult in non-breeding plumage. — Above ashy- 

 brown with dark shaft-marks to most of the feathers ; a rather 

 paler collar round the hind neck ; greater wing-coverts tipped with 

 white forming a wing-bar ; wing-quills blackish, the inner primaries 

 and secondaries margined with white, all paler towards the base of 

 the inner web ; rump and upper tail-coverts dusky-black in the 

 centre white at the sides ; tail dark brown on the centre feathers, 

 pale smoky on the outer feathers ; lores, sides of the face and neck 

 hght brown, slightly streaked with darker; forehead, supra-loral 

 stripes, lower surface and axillaries pure white, slightly ashy on the 

 foreneck and breast ; edge of the wing mottled with brown, under 

 primary coverts ashy, tipped with white. 



Iris dark brown ; bill and legs black. 



Length (in flesh) 5'5 ; wing 3-8 ; tail 1-35 ; culmen -75 ; 

 tarsus -88. 



In the breeding plumage the upper surface is sandy-rufous 

 mottled with black and white ; the throat and neck are tinged with 

 rufous, anf; the chest is ashy mottled with dusky spots. 



Distribution. — The Little Stint breeds in the northern part of 

 the Old World from North Cape to the Yenesei, east of which it is 

 replaced by a closely allied subspecies ; passing south on migration, 

 it winters throughout Africa, including Madagascar, and Southern 

 Asia from Persia to Burma. 



In South Africa it is fairly common from October to March in 

 suitable situations, both along the coast and also inland. 



The following are localities : Gape Colony — Cape division, Sep- 

 tember, December (S. A. Mus.), February (Shelley), Port Elizabeth, 

 common (Brown), East London (Eickard), Port St. John's, Novem- 

 ber (S. A. Mus.), Orange Eiver near Upington, November (Brad- 

 shaw) ; Natal— near Newcastle, October (Reid) ; Orange Eiver 

 Colony — Ehenoster Eiver, May (Ayres) ; Vredefort Eoad (B. 

 Hamilton) ; Transvaal— Potchefstroom, October, December, April 

 (Ayres) ; Bechuanaland — Ngami region (Andersson) ; German 

 South-west Africa — Walvisch Bay, November, January, Otjim- 

 binque, December, Ondonga, October (Andersson), Eeheboth, 

 October (Fleck). 



Habits. — This little Wader is generally seen about mud-flats and 

 marshy places either near the sea or often inland along rivers and 



