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A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



white or white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts pale grey ; tail- 

 feathers ash-brown, tipped buff or white with a broad subterminal 

 blackish band, three outer pairs broadly banded white at tip, outer 

 pair with outer web bordered white ; primaries sepia, inner ones 

 tipped buff-white, shaft of 2nd white, of remainder brown ; second- 

 aries ash-brown tipped white, paler on inner webs and with ash- 

 white bases, innermost secondaries as mantle ; primary-coverts 

 ash-brown, inner ones 

 faintly tipped light 

 buff ; rest of wing- 

 coverts ash - brown 

 edged pink-cinnamon. 

 This plumage is ac- 

 quired by complete 

 moult July to Nov. 

 Summer. — The body- 

 feathers (not all scapu- 

 lars), in some central pair of tail- 

 feathers, some innermost secondaries 

 and coverts, some median and lesser 

 coverts are moulted March to June, 

 but not rest of wings or tail-feathers ; 

 occasionally one or two winter feathers 

 are retained on breast. Crown and 

 upper -part of nape black -brown, 

 feathers with slight margins of cream- 

 yellow, most pronounced on fore -head ; 

 broad white superciliary stripes extend 

 from lores to nape where they join ; 

 rest of nape ash -brown ; remaining 

 upper -parts as winter but feathers of 

 mantle with narrower edges (sometimes 

 mantle almost uniform ash -brown) ; 

 ear-coverts, cheeks and sides of neck 



as winter ; chin and throat white ; lower -throat streaked dusky ; 

 upper -breast ash-brown, feathers with faint subterminal bands of 

 dark brown and fringed warm buff ; a narrow sepia line succeeded 

 by a broad white band (sometimes bordered below by a narrow sepia 

 line) separates upper-breast from orange -cinnamon lower-breast 

 and flanks ; belly black ; under tail-coverts cream-white, outer 

 ones tinged pale orange -cinnamon ; remaining under -parts, tail 

 and wings as winter. N.B. — Males in summer are usually not so 

 brightly coloured as females and area of black on belly is smaller 

 but this seems to vary individually, some males appearing quite 

 as richly coloured. 



Nestling (Plate 9). — Down on fore-head white or light buff 

 with a median black line extending from base of bill to crown ; 

 crown ochraceous-buff and white irregularly marked black ; on 

 hinder crown a crescent-shaped patch of white, below which a 



The Dotterel (Charadrius morinellus). 

 Adult, summer. 



