23 



breast buffy greyisb with a faint brownish tinge, striped with blackish ; rest of the imderparts white, 

 the flanks irregularly spotted or blotched with black. 



Young in down. Covered with rather close down ; crown velvety black, this colour narrowing to a point on 

 the forehead, and margined all round with buffy white ; hind crown slightly spotted with white ; upper 

 parts deep black slightly varied with rufous, and dotted here and there with white ; sides of the head 

 white with a warm buffy tinge ; a dark streak passes from the base of the bill over the eye, and another 

 below it, and behind the eye there is a dark patch ; rest of the underparts greyish white. 



Obs. Professor Schlegel, in his excellent article on the present species in the ' Mus. Pays-Bas,' gives most 

 elaborate details of measurements of specimens from various localities in the Palsearctic and Nearctic 

 Regions, clearly showing that they all belong to one species ; and in this view I fully coincide, and 

 may add that in the series of British examples in my collection I find the greatest variation in size, and 

 can match examples from both America and Asia to a nicety with one or the other of these specimens. 

 I do not, however, think it necessary to give a table of measurements, but may mention that the largest 

 of my British-killed specimens measures — culmen 1"52, wing 4 - 62, tail 2 - 2, tarsus 10 ; and the smallest 

 — culmen 1/18, wing 4 - l, tail 1"8, tarsus 0'9. 



The range of the present species is very extensive ; for it is found throughout the northern and 

 central portions of Europe, Asia, and America during the summer season, wintering there also 

 to a large extent ; and during the cold season of the year it is found in North Africa, India, and 

 the Southern States of North America. 



With us in Great Britain it is a common bird on the coasts, especially during the seasons of 

 passage. It is also found during winter; and in Scotlaud especially many remain to breed. 

 Mr. A. G. More remarks that it is said to have bred in Devonshire, Pembrokeshire, and Cheshire ; 

 but he adds that he has not been able to obtain any corroborative information, and that further 

 data are desirable. In Scotland it certainly breeds in considerable numbers; and Mr. Robert 

 Gray writes : — " In the west of Scotland it is found breeding in almost every moorland and 

 marshy tract where the Snipe or Golden Plover is met with. It is extremely abundant in North 

 Uist, Benbecula, and South Uist, and, indeed, over the whole of the Outer Hebrides. It also 

 breeds on St. Kilda and the Monach isles. On the inner islands it is equally plentiful, while on 

 many parts of the mainland it is never absent. Mr. Alston has found it breeding in the Upper 

 Ward of Lanarkshire, at an elevation of one thousand feet above the sea-level ; and I have taken 

 the bird and eggs on several occasions on the Renfrewshire hills, within eight or ten miles of 

 Glasgow, and within full view of the city." 



Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown says that it is found breeding only in one locality in Assynt. 

 Mr. Crawford informed him that it breeds near Tongue; but Sir William Milner does not 

 mention it in his list of birds observed in Sutherland. In Orkney and Shetland it is said to be 

 very common during the breeding-season; but the major portion of those which breed or have 

 been hatched there migrate southward, leaving but a small proportion there during the winter. 

 In Ireland, on the other hand, it is numerous on the coasts during passage and in winter ; but 

 comparatively few remain there during the nesting-season. 



Professor Newton says that Dr. Paulson has more than once received the present species 

 from Greenland, both in young and autumn plumage. It probably breeds there, as it certainly 



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