LIMOSA. 245 



portion of the breast, if raised, will be found to be not merely tipped 

 whitish, but to be also obscurely barred with white; the abdomen, 

 vent, and lower tail-coverts are pure white, as are also the axillaries 

 and wing lining ; the rump is white with a few cuneiform or heart- 

 shaped blackish brown spots ; upper tail-coverts white, with narrow 

 irregular arrow-head bars ; tail feathers grey brown with dark shafts 

 tipped white, and mottled with white on the inner webs of the exterior 

 ones, in some with traces of darker transverse bars ; the primaries 

 and their greater coverts black ; the shafts of the first two or three 

 white, subsequent ones brownish white ; scapulars and tertiaries pale 

 brown, darker shafted, margined paler, and many of them more or less 

 tinged with ashy ; the lesser and median coverts like the scapulars, but 

 margined whitish ; secondaries brown, paler on their inner webs, and 

 margined on both webs and on the tips with white, as indeed are also, 

 so far as the tips are concerned, the later primaries, though less con- 

 spicuously so ; the greater secondary coverts are more ashy brown, 

 narrowly margined with white. In one specimen, which appears to 

 be further advanced, the lateral tail feathers are distinctly barred 

 blackish brown and white ; the cuneiform barrings on the rump and 

 upper tail-coverts are more marked; the axillaries are all strongly 

 barred ; the feathers of the sides and flanks, and also the lower tail- 

 coverts, exhibit numerous arrow-head bars ; and one or two rufous or 

 chestnut feathers with black bars have begun to show themselves on 

 the breast." 



The summer plumage is thus described by Temminck : — 



" Male. — Upper part of the head and occiput blackish brown, mixed 

 with streaks of reddish yellow ; a band of the latter colour over the 

 eyes ; lores blackish brown ; cheeks and throat of a yellowish red ; 

 all the lower parts of the body including the under tail-coverts pale 

 yellowish red ; upper part of the back and scapulars blackish brown, 

 marbled with reddish yellow and whitish grey ; lower part of the back 

 and rump white, marked with longitudinal yellowish red spots ; the 

 tail marked with brown and white bars, those of the latter tint irre- 

 gularly distributed, and disposed more or less longitudinally; quills 

 black from their tip, the remaining part towards the bases blackish 

 brown, with their inner webs whitish grey, marbled with pale brown ; 

 the secondaries grey, with the shafts and margins white. 



"Female. — The head and lores as in the male; the throat white, 

 marked with reddish grey ; cheeks and neck very light reddish, with 

 numerous brown streaks, which become broader, and form small trans- 

 verse brown and white bars on the sides of the breast ; the latter and 

 the belly marbled with white and very pale reddish ; the abdominal 

 part white ; the lower tail-coverts reddish white, with light brown 

 bars. 



" Length of Male. — 14"5 to 14"8 inches, expanse 27 to27'75, tail from 

 vent 2-7 ■ to 3-3, wing 7-8 to 8-4, tarsus 2, bill at front 2-8 to 3-1, 

 weight 8'1 oz. 



