THE AMERICAN STINT 



The present species is rather smaller than the Little Stint, and differs only 

 slightly in colour, though if a series of specimens of the two in summer plumage be 

 compared, the American bird is seen to be generally blacker on the upper parts. 



The nest is merely a slight hollow in the ground, scantily lined with withered 

 leaves, and contains four eggs, similar in colour to those of the Little Stint. 



TEMMINCK'S STINT. 



Tringa temmincki, Leisler. 

 Plate 66. 



Like the Little Stint, this small bird of passage visits the British Islands in 

 autumn and again in spring, but is much rarer and less regular in its appearances 

 on our shores than its congener. It breeds in Northern Europe and Asia, and 

 migrates southwards in winter, when its range extends to Africa and India. 



Wooley, in a communication regarding Temminck's Stint, published by Hewit- 

 son in his Eggs of British Birds (3rd ed. vol. ii. p. 362), says : " Grassy banks and 

 pastures by the water-side are the kind of places where it takes up its breeding 

 quarters ; and it seems to like to be near houses. Nothing could be more interest- 

 ing and pretty than this little bird in the early part of summer ; it is so tame one 

 could often catch it in a net at the end of a stick. At one time it is hovering with 

 its wings raised over its back, or floating about, and it reminds me rather of some 

 insect than any other bird ; at another time it will be standing on the top of a stone 

 or stake, or the gable end of a cottage ; and whether hovering or standing on its 

 perch, it utters a constant trilling note, of which I can best give an idea by saying 

 that it brought to my recollection the Grasshopper Warbler, though the resemblance 

 is perhaps slight. 



" When its eggs are very near, it sometimes runs about one's feet, and though it 

 cannot but be anxious, it seems as busy as ever, picking gnats and other insects off 

 the grass. . . . The nest is very simple — a few short bits of hay, in a little saucer- 

 shaped hollow, placed amongst thin grass or sedge, generally not far from the 

 water's edge, but sometimes in the middle of a meadow." 



The eggs are four in number, and are of a pale greenish or huffish stone-colour, 

 blotched with shades of brown. 



In winter the colour of the upper parts of the bird is a dull greyish-brown with 

 dusky streaks. 



35 



