TRINGA AUSTRALIS, nobis. 



New Holland Knot. 



PLATE XCI. 



T. fusca gula alba, superciliis genisque albis fusco sparsim maculatis, collo pec- 

 toreque cinerascentibus fusco striatis, remigibus nigrescentibus rachibus albis, 

 tectricibus caudse superiovibus nigris, rectricibus duabus intermediis fuscis 

 rufescente marginatis, pedibus cinereis. 



VV e lately received two skins of a Tringa, in a small package from New 

 Holland, which we have been unable to identify with the descriptions of 

 any of the genus, contained in the various works to which we have access. 

 In its affinities, it appears to belong to the group of which the Knot 

 ( Tringa Islandica) is typical, having the bill as short as the head, and the 

 toes bordered with lateral membranes. Its length is about nine inches, 

 the bill is dusky, scarcely an inch in length, and the usual groove reaches 

 as far as its flattened extremity ; over the eyes is a streak of white, 

 with minute brown specks ; the feathers of the crown and nape are black, 

 deeply bordered with reddish-brown ; the throat is white ; the lower part 

 of the neck and breast ash-grey, with hair-brown streaks, the abdomen 

 and vent white ; the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts are deep hair- 

 brown, the feathers margined with ash-grey, and reddish-white ; the lower 

 back and upper tail-coverts brownish-black ; the tail is cuneated, the fea- 

 thers of a deep hair-brown, margined with reddish-white ; the quills are 

 hair-brown, the shafts white, and when closed, the wings reach to the end 

 of the tail ; the legs and toes are slender, of a bluish-grey colour, the 

 latter are furnished with lateral membranes similar to the common Knot. 

 This in all probability, and judging from analogy, is the winter plumage 

 of the species, and we may infer, that during the summer and breeding 

 season, it acquires a livery somewhat similar to that which distinguishes 

 the Tringa Islandica, or to the American Red-breasted Sandpiper of 

 Wilson, to which it appears nearly allied. Of its habits and manners we 

 are unable to speak, as no memorandum accompanied the skins which we 

 received. 



