268 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Persia, India, Ceylon . and Burmah. The Little Stint has also been recorded 

 from the Seychelles and Providence Bank, in the Indian Ocean. 



Allied forms. — Limonites ruficoUis, an inhabitant of Eastern Siberia, 

 from the valley of the Lena to the Tchuski Land and the Commander Islands 

 passing the Baikal region, China, and Japan on migration, and vyintering in the 

 Malay Archipelago and Australia. Possibly this bird may breed in the Southern 

 hemisphere. Gould records it as doing so in Australia in the Houtmans Abrolhos 

 in December. It also visits Tasmania and the smaller islands. We may rest 

 assured that if this Stint normally crosses the tropics it breeds in south temperate 

 or even antarctic latitudes. The eastern representative of the Little Stint, 

 possibly distinct although completely intergrading with its vyestern representative. 

 Typical examples in breeding plumage differ from the Little Stint in having the 

 underparts, from the chin to the breast inclusive, unspotted chestnut, and the 

 two central tail feathers uniform brownish-black. In the Little Stint the chin 

 and throat are white, and the breast is streaked with chestnut. The two 

 forms are, however, almost if not quite indistinguishable in winter plumage. 

 L. minutilla and L. damacensis treated of in the next chapter. 



Habits. — British naturalists and sportsmen only have the opportunity of 

 meeting with the Little Stint during the period of its autumn and spring migrations 

 along our coasts. In autumn it begins to arrive in August, but the majority 

 appear in September and remain until October before passing on still further to 

 the south. It is a late bird of passage in spring with us, not arriving before May 

 in any numbers, lingering with us often until the middle of June, then starting 

 north for the Arctic tundras where it breeds. During its sojourn on the British 

 coasts it chiefly frequents the low shores where mud-flats abound, and broad 

 reaches of sand supply it with haunts where food is ever plentiful. It also 

 frequents salt marshes, and is partial to the wide estuaries of East Anglia. Here 

 it is frequently to be met with in the company of Dunlins and other little birds of 

 the shore. It usually migrates in flocks of varying size which, when alarmed, 

 perform various graceful evolutions in the air before settling again. Even during 

 the breeding season the Little Stint is a remarkably social bird, and small 

 parties collect round the shores of the moorland pools to feed. The immature 

 non-breeding birds appear to keep in large flocks in the summer quarters 

 throughout their stay ; and whilst the brooding birds are busy incubating, their 

 mates often form into considerable bands. Its habits when on the coasts of our 

 Islands are very similar to those of the Dunlin. Like that bird it is almost 

 constantly in motion, running hither and thither about the mud and sand in a 

 restless manner, and even wading through the shallows, but it appears never to 

 swim nor dive. The food of this Stint consists of insects and their larvte, 

 crustaceans, worms, and various small marine creatures ; whilst in the Arctic 



