258 RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



In winter. 



Bill greenish-black, eye of a darker brown. Feet dull yellowish-green; 

 claws dusky. The upper parts are deep ash-grey, each feather margined 

 with whitish; feathers of the rump greyish-white, upper tail-coverts white, 

 barred with dusky. The quills and tail feathers as in summer. A band 

 from the bill over the eye to the hind part of head, white; loral space, 

 cheeks, and sides of neck pale grey, streaked with darker; throat and lower 

 parts in general, white; the sides, axillar feathers, and under wing-coverts, 

 barred or spotted with dusky; lower tail-coverts as in summer. 



The young in autumn are of a dull light brownish-grey colour above, each 

 feather having a narrow whitish margin, within which is a dusky line. The 

 fore part and sides of the neck, and the fore part of the breast dull greyish- 

 white, with small dusky-grey longitudinal streaks; the band over the eye 

 indistinct, the loral space darker. The bill and feet are of a duller tint, and 

 the eye darker, than in the adult in winter. Weight 4i oz. 



On the roof of the mouth is a double series of small blunt papilloe. The 

 tongue is very slender, ly 1 ^ inches long, emarginate and papillate at the base, 

 channelled above, horny beneath, the point rather acute. The oesophagus is 

 4|- inches long, narrow, its diameter 3^ twelfths. The proventriculus is 

 oblong, 5^ twelfths in diameter, 9 twelfths long. The stomach is an ex- 

 tremely powerful gizzard, of a roundish form, 1 inch and 5 twelfths long, its 

 greatest breadth H inches; the cuticular lining thin, horny, with large longi- 

 tudinal rugae. The intestine 25 inches long, its average diameter 3|- twelfths; 

 coeca cylindrical, 3 twelfths long. The contents of the stomach are frag- 

 ments of mussels and gravel, with which part of the intestine is also filled. 



The trachea is 3i inches long, flattened, 2^ twelfths broad at the top, 

 diminishing to 2 twelfths; its rings very slender and unossified, 98 in num- 

 ber; the bronchial half-rings about 15. The lateral muscles very thin, the 

 sterno-tracheal slender. 



