THE LITTLE STINT. 575 



X25.6 and 35.4x26.2. Min. : 34.6x25.1 and 36.6x25 mm. 

 Breeding -season. — Last week June and early July on the Taimyr. 

 Incubation by both sexes. Period not known. Single brooded. 



Food. — Small Crustacea (sandhoppers, etc.) ; worms, and insects, 

 including coleoptera, diptera and their larvae, etc. 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Pass age -migrant (late July-Oct. 

 occasionally Nov. and very rarely winter months and April- June, 

 exceptionally July). Chiefly east coast Great Britain and south 

 coast England, scarce west side, rare I. and unknown O. Hebrides, 

 scarce Shetlands, unknown Orkneys and extreme north and north- 

 west Scottish mainland. In Ireland, chiefly autumn, east and north 

 coasts. Much rarer, especially Scotland and Ireland, in spring. 

 Occasional inland. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Breeds in arctic regions of Asia, winters 

 in Africa (from Mediterranean to tropical and south Africa), India, 

 Malay Peninsula, and even Australia and New Zealand. Casual in 

 N. and S. America. 



CALIDRIS MINUTA 



392. Calidris minuta (Lei si.)*— THE LITTLE STINT. 



Tringa minuta Leisler, Nachtrage zu Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., p. 74 



(1812 — Near Hanau on the Main). 



Tringa minuta Leisler, Yarrell, in, p. 386 ; Saunders, p. 585. 



Erolia minuta minuta (Leisl.), Hand-List (1912), p. 174. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Fore-head white ; 

 crown, nape, mantle and scapulars ash-brown (paler on nape), 

 feathers with brown shaft -streaks and whitish edges and those of 

 crown and mantle and some scapulars shaded darker centrally ; 

 back and rump dark sepia, feathers edged ash -brown ; central upper 

 tail-coverts black-brown ; sides of back, rump and lateral upper 

 tail-coverts white ; an ill-defined eye -stripe white streaked dusky ; 

 lores, ear -co verts, cheeks and sides of neck white, more or less 

 streaked dusky-brown ; sides of breast white faintly streaked 

 dusky ; remaining under-parts white ; tail-feathers pale ash-brown, 

 faintly tipped white, central pair dark sepia ; primaries sepia, inner 

 webs paler with white shafts, 6th and succeeding with faint white 

 margins on outer webs ; secondaries sepia, paler on inner webs, 

 tips and bases white, innermost as mantle ; primary-coverts black- 

 brown, inner ones tipped white ; greater coverts ash -brown, broadly 

 tipped white ; median coverts ash-brown with lighter edges and 

 dark shafts ; lesser coverts dark sepia, faintly tipped white or buff. 

 This plumage is acquired by complete moult Aug. to Dec. Summer. 

 — The body -feathers, tail-feathers, primaries, secondaries and their 

 coverts, innermost secondaries and coverts, some median and lesser 



* According to Buturlin both G. minuta and ruficollis nest in E. Siberia, 

 and stronger, shorter tarsus distinguishes latter species. — E.H. 



