16 



and rufous buff; crown black, each feather margined with pale rufous; sides of the head and space 

 above and before the eye white, spotted with blackish brown; nape washed with grey, and closely 

 spotted with blackish brown ; back and scapulars black, each feather margined with dull buff or pale 

 rufous, scapulars tipped with dull buff; lesser and median wing-coverts brownish grey, edged with pale 

 ashy brown ; larger coverts brownish grey, slightly tipped with white ; quills blackish brown, dull grey 

 towards the base of the inner web, and narrowly margined with white on the outer web of the inner 

 primaries ; shaft of the first primary white, the remainder having the shafts brown at the base and 

 white towards the tip ; secondaries tipped with white ; elongated inner secondaries blackish brown, 

 margined with rufous buff ; rump blackish, each feather narrowly tipped with dull grey ; upper tail- 

 coverts white, here and there spotted with blackish; tail pale ashy brown, imperceptibly tipped with 

 dirty white, the two central feathers darker than the rest ; underparts white ; throat (except the upper 

 part, which is pure white) , chest, and flanks spotted with clearly defined small blackish brown spots ; 

 bill blackish dull green at the base ; legs dusky greenish ; iris blackish brown. Total length 7\ inches, 

 culmen 11, wing 4 - 7, tail T8, tarsus 1, bare portion of tibia 055. 



Young in autumn (Musquash, N.B., 28th October, 1862). Crown dull blackish, the feathers having dull 

 fulvous margins ; sides of the head and nape dull greyish, slightly marked with dark brown ; back and 

 scapulars similar to the adult summer plumage, but edged with white ; wings as in the adult ; upper 

 tail-coverts white, almost unspotted ; underparts white, on the chest and neck washed with greyish 

 buff, and spotted with dull brown, the spots not being clearly defined ; flanks washed with pale brownish 

 buff; chin and upper part of the throat white. 



Adult in winter (Kingsbury Reservoir, Middlesex, 1856). Upper parts dull greyish brown, imperceptibly 

 marked with rather darker brown ; scapulars and elongated inner secondaries similar to the rest of the 

 upper parts ; wing-coverts duller than in the summer plumage ; tail-coverts pure white ; tail rather 

 paler than the summer plumage ; underparts white, on the throat (excepting the upper part) and neck 

 washed with greyish brown, and slightly marked with darker brown. 



Obs. I can find no appreciable difference between the male and the female, except that in the breeding- 

 plumage the latter is, if any thing, a trifle richer-coloured. 



When writing the history of Tringa minutella a note from the pen of my friend Dr. Elliott Coues was 

 inserted, in which he said that he could not state authoritatively that Tringa fuscicollis, Vieill., and 

 that species are identical, but considered it against all probability that they should be distinct. Since 

 then, however, I have, with the assistance of Mr. Osbert Salvin, been enabled to clear this question up ; 

 for after most carefully investigating the matter, we came to the conclusion that the Chorlito pestorejo 

 pardo of Azara, on which Vieillot's T. fuscicollis is founded, is undoubtedly the present species ; and I 

 may here mention that Vieillot especially refers to the characteristic white upper tail-coverts. Lichten- 

 stein, I. c, describes a Sandpiper under the name of Tringa campestris from Brazil and Montevideo, 

 which he identifies with the Chorlito pestorejo pardo of Azara ; but, as his description is imperfect, I am 

 unable to decide whether it really is the present species, or one of the other small American Sandpipers. 

 He describes it as being less than the Dunlin, and having a much shorter beak, which would lead one to 

 suppose that he refers to Tringa bairdii, or possibly T. minutella, rather than T. fuscicollis. Bonaparte, 

 /. c, and Degland and Gerbe (Orn. Eur. ii. p. 202) refer to the present species as Pelidna melanotos 

 (Vieill.), which is certainly an error. 



The present species, again, is one of those American birds which, having on several occasions 

 been killed in Europe, must be included in the present work as a straggler. It has been met 



