280 SANDPIPER. 



prettily freckled with small dark spots ; the neck behind mixed pale 

 brown, grey, and ash, with a few indistinct dusky spots ; forepart 

 and breast white, clouded with dull cinnamon, and irregularly 

 marked with black spots, having a purple gloss ; the shoulders and 

 scapulars black, edged with pale rust-colour ; tertials nearly as long 

 as the quills, with dusky bars ; ridge of the wings brownish ash ; 

 wing coverts, back, and rump the same, inclining to olive, the 

 feathers deeper dusky brown in the middle ; prime quills deep olive 

 brown ; the outer webs of the secondaries lighter, edged, and tipped 

 white; the inner mostly white towards the base ; tail coverts glossy 

 black, edged with pale rust, and tipped with white, but in some is 

 a streak of white from the middle upwards, nearly the whole length ; 

 tail lightish brown, but the two middle feathers are barred with 

 darker spots; belly and vent white; legs the colour of red sealing- 

 wax, claws black. The female is smaller, and the plumage more dingy 

 and indistinct. The egg the size of that of the Magpie, greenish 

 white, spotted and blotched with brown, of a long shape, pointed 

 at the smaller end. 



A pair of these, male and female, were shot in Rippendale Fen, 

 in Lincolnshire, in May, 1799 ; said to be a constant inhabitant of 

 that part, and the note to be very loud and melodious, being heard 

 even when the bird is beyond the reach of sight. This is apparently 

 a new species, for although Mr. Bewick has given the synonym of 

 Tringa Erythropus, it can scarcely be reconciled to the description 

 of that bird. 



36, -BLACK-HEADED SANDPIPER. 



Tringa atra, Lid. Orn. ii. 738. Naturf. xiii. s. 193. — Sanders. 

 Black-headed Sandpiper, Gen. Si/n. Sup. ii. 313. 



SIZE uncertain. Head and neck black; back and wings pale 

 brown, mixed with black; breast and belly grey ; rump the same, 

 undulated with white and black. — Inhabits the Banks of the Rhine. 



