33? 



ASH- COL O URED SANDPIPER. 



ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. {Tringa cinerea.) 



PLATE LVIL— Fig. 2. 



Arct. Zool. p. 474, No. 386.— Bewick, ii. p. 102.— Peak's Museum, JSTo. 4060. 

 TRINGA CANUTUS.—Ltskmvs,.— Plumage of the young.* 



Synonyms of young : Tringa calidris, Linn. i. 252. — Tringa nsevia, Lath. Ind. Orn. 

 ii. 732.— Maubeche tachete, Buff. — Freckled Sandpiper, Arct. Zool. ii. p. 480. 



The regularly-disposed concentric semicircles of white and 

 dark brown that mark the upper parts of the plumage of this 

 species, distinguish it from all others, and give it a very neat 

 appearance. In activity it is superior to the preceding ; and 

 traces the flowing and recession of the waves along the sandy 



* This beautiful sandpiper has also from its changes been described 

 under various names, and our author has well represented the states of 

 the young and summer plumage in his ash-coloured and red-breasted 

 sandpipers of the present plate. In the winter plumage of the adult, 

 the upper parts are of a uniform gray, and want the black and light 

 edges represented in fig. 2. 



America and Europe seem the only countries of the Knot. I have 

 never seen it from India, but have a single specimen of a knot from 

 New Holland, very similar, and which I considered identical, until a 

 closer examination has led me to have doubts on the subject. Like the 

 other migratory species, they only appear on our coasts in autumn, on 

 their return with their broods, or more sparingly in spring, when on 

 their way north. The young possess a good deal of the rufous colour 

 on the under parts, which leaves them as the winter approaches. I 

 once met a large flock on the east side of Holy Island, in the month of 

 September, which were so tame as to allow me to kill as many as I 

 wanted with stones from the beach : it may have been on their first 

 arrival, when they were fatigued. I have a specimen, in full plumage, 

 killed by a boy on Portobello sands by the same means. In general 

 they are rather shy, and it is only in their wheeling round that a good 

 shot can be obtained. Before the severity of the winter sets in, they 

 are fat, and are sought after by persons who know them, for the table. 



There is a peculiarity in the gregarious Tringce, and most of the 

 Charadriadce, which is very nearly confined to these tribes, — the simul- 

 taneous flight, and the acting as it were by concert in their wheels and 

 evolutions. Among none is it more conspicuous than in this species ; 

 and every one who has been on the shore during winter, on a day 



