634 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



migration through temperate Europe and Asia, and winters in 

 Africa and tropical Asia, Malay Archipelago, and Australia, Tas- 

 mania, and New Zealand. Accidental in Canaries, Madeira, and 

 Azores, and America. 



TRINGA STAGNATILIS 



416. Tringa stagnatilis (Bechst,)— THE MARSH-SANDPIPER. 



Totanus stagnatilis Bechstein, Orn. Taschenb., 11, p. 292, pi. (1803 — 



Germany). 



T. stagnatilis, Saunders, p. 620 (text) ; M. J. Nicoll, Brit. B., in, p. 356. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter.— Like Greenshank 

 but crown ash-brown, feathers edged white, some feathers with 

 sepia spots ; mantle and scapulars, with fewer sepia streaks and 

 notches and with narrower white edges ; loral streak absent ; eye- 



The Marsh-Sandpiper (Tringa stagnatilis). 



stripe and lores white ; axillaries and under wing-coverts white ; 

 tail and wings as Greenshank but innermost secondaries and coverts, 

 as scapulars, usually bordered, or more plentifully spotted sepia 

 (sometimes with one or two irregular sepia barrings) ; greater and 

 median coverts ash -brown narrowly tipped white and with sepia 

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

 Summer. — Moult as in Greenshank. Like Greenshank but fore-head 

 and crown white or light drab (sometimes tinged pink-buff), heavily 

 spotted sepia ; mantle and scapulars light drab (sometimes tinged 

 pale pink-buff), feathers faintly edged white, those of mantle with 

 large irregular black-brown centres, and scapulars more or less 

 barred same ; under -parts as Greenshank but streaks narrower and 

 spots smaller ; under tail-coverts usually with sepia shaft-streaks 

 and a few irregular bars ; innermost secondaries and coverts, new 

 median and lesser coverts as scapulars but shaft-streaks and bars 

 broader. 



Nestling and Juvenile. — (Not examined.) 



First winter. — As adult winter and only to be distinguished by 

 worn and faded sepia wing-coverts and by light buff or white edges 

 (incomplete on innermost) to median coverts when not too abraded. 

 The juvenile body-feathers, tail (apparently sometimes central pair 

 only), some innermost secondaries and coverts, some median and a 

 few lesser coverts are moulted from autumn to Feb. First summer. 

 — Apparently as adult summer and only to be distinguished when 

 buff edges to wing-coverts are not too abraded. 



