306 



LITTLE SANDPIPER. 



that Strix brachyotos is only recently identified as a species, about 

 which there has been various opinions. To Mr. Pennant, we believe, 

 science is indebted for the first specific distinction of that bird. Buffon, 

 it is true, knew something' of the Hawk Owl, but not having noticed 

 the auricles, he described and figured it as the Brown Owl (La 

 Chouette, ou Grand Cheveche, Planch. Enl. 438.) This species is very 

 common in the warmer parts of Europe during the summer months, 

 but leaves them on the approach of autumn for the warmer regions. 

 Temminck says, " it is rare in Holland," and that " it builds its nest 

 in the cleft of a rock, or in a hole formed in a tree, laying from two 

 to four white eggs." 



LITTLE MOUNTAIN FINCH.— A name for the Snow Fleck. 



LITTLE OWL. — A name for the Sparrow Owl. 



LITTLE PETREL.— A name for the Petrel. 



LITTLE SANDPIPER (Tringa pusilla, Linnaeus.) 



Tringa pusilla, Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 681.— Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 737. 8.— Cinclus 

 minor, Briss. 2. p. 269. — Tringa Temminckii, Leisler, 1. p. 65. 9. 70. and 73. — 

 Temm. Man. d'Orn. 2. p. 622. — Little Sandpiper, Mont. Orn. Diet, and Supp. 



— Flem. Br. Anim. p. 108 Little Stint, or Least Snipe, Bewick's Br. Birds, 



2. t. p. 122.— Brown Sandpiper, Br. Zool. 2. No. 195. 



This bird seems to have met with the same fate as most of its con- 

 geners, by being multiplied into at least two species. An adult female 

 killed on the south coast of Devonshire weighed six drams ; length six 

 inches ; bill dusky, three quarters of an inch long, very slender, a little 

 bending downwards, and rather larger near the points than in the middle; 

 irides dusky ; the forehead, crown of the head, back of the neck, back, 

 and scapulars, dark cinereous ; dusky down the shafts, except on the neck, 

 which is rather lighter coloured than the rest ; from the bill to the eye a 

 dusky -brown streak ; above that, an obscure dirty white one ; chin and 

 throat white ; fore part of the neck and upper breast pale cinereous- 

 brown ; lower breast, belly, vent, and under tail coverts, pure white ; 

 primores, secondaries, and the greater coverts immediately impending 

 on them, dusky, very slightly tipped with white, most so on the coverts, 

 and the primores margined with white on the outer webs, except the 

 two first ; the shaft of the first quill is white, the others dusky brown ; 

 spurious wing, and smaller coverts near it, dusky ; those along the 

 ridge of the wing dusky and cinereous ; the rest of the coverts and ter- 

 tials cinereous, like the back, a few of the former edged with pale 

 rufous-brown ; the rump and upper tail coverts dusky, the feathers 

 slightly tipped with cinereous ; the tail is cuneiform, composed of twelve 

 feathers, the six middle ones are cinereous, the two middlemost inclining 

 to dusky ; the three outer feathers on each side pure white ; legs light 



