158 



fusco notatis : tectricitms alarum cinereis albido marginatis et in his marginibus sordide nigro-fusco 

 notatis : capitis lateribus et loris albis vix grisescente nigro striatis : regione oculari alba, : subtiis albus, 

 gutture, pectore et hypochondriis vix nigricante striatis, subcaudalibus inconspicue nigricante transfas- 

 ciatis : rostro ad basin rufescenti-aurantiaco, in dimidio apicali nigro : pedibus rufescenti-aurantiacis. 



? baud a mare distinguenda. 



Adult in spring (female, near Gibraltar, 25th March). Upper parts brown, with a faint ashy tinge, the 

 head, neck, and back striped with blackish, this colour widening towards the concealed base of the 

 feather till it covers the entire basal portion in the dorsal feathers; feathers on the crown blackish 

 brown, margined with pale brown ; quills blackish brown ; shaft of the first primary white, and the 

 outer and basal half of the inner webs of the primaries white ; short secondaries white, but slightly 

 marked with brown, forming a conspicuous white alar bar when the bird extends its wings ; elongated 

 inner secondaries, scapulars, and wing-coverts brown, like the back, but barred and marked with 

 blackish; the larger coverts tipped with white, and some of the outer ones dark brown, unbarred; 

 lower back and rump pure white ; upper tail-coverts and outer tail-feathers white, barred with blackish, 

 the central rectrices similarly barred, but the ground-colour is ashy brown ; throat, neck, and underparts 

 generally white, the throat, neck, and breast profusely striped with blackish brown, the stripes on the 

 breast being almost drop-shaped ; flanks barred as well as striped with dark brown ; abdomen nearly 

 pure white ; under tail-coverts white, barred with blackish ; bill blackish towards the point, dark red at 

 the base, iris dark brown, legs red, claws blackish. Total length about 11 inches, culmen T95, wing 

 6"4, tail 2'8, tarsus 1*9, bare portion of tibia about 1*1. 



Male in autumn (Pagham, Sussex, 11th July). Upper parts brown, with an ashy tinge, with narrow buffy 

 margins to the feathers, there being no signs of the markings which characterize the summer dress ; 

 underparts white, striped only on the throat and upper breast, the flanks having also a few markings, 

 the chin being pure white ; under tail-coverts slightly barred with blackish. 



Adult in full winter dress (Albania, December) . Crown, hind neck, and back ashy grey, unmarked ; quills 

 as in the summer dress, but paler ; elongated inner secondaries and scapulars like the back, with only 

 a few markings on the edge of the feather ; wing-coverts edged with white, in which edging a few bars 

 and markings are present ; sides of the head and space in front of the eye white, slightly streaked with 

 blackish grey; feathers round the eye white; underparts white, very slightly streaked or marked on 

 the throat, breast, and flanks with dull blackish ; under tail-coverts slightly barred with blackish ; bill 

 and legs as in the summer dress, but the shade of colour is rather orange than red. 



The present species inhabits Europe generally, is met with in Asia as far east as South-eastern 

 Siberia and China, and during the winter migrates as far south in Africa as the Cape colony. 



In Great Britain it is a resident, being met with at all seasons of the year, in the summer 

 scattered about in localities suitable for the purpose of breeding ; and in the autumn and winter 

 it collects in flocks and roams about the coasts and estuaries. It is not so numerous in England 

 during the breeding-season as it used formerly to be, owing chiefly to the draining of so many 

 fens ; but it still breeds not uncommonly in some localities. Mr. W. Vincent Legge writes (Ibis, 

 1866, p. 420) that he found upwards of twenty nests in a low pasture of a few acres in extent in 

 the south-eastern part of Kent in 1866. I have no data respecting its breeding on the west 

 coast of England, though it may nest there. 



In Scotland it is numerous at all seasons of the year ; and Mr. Robert Gray says that it 



