DUSKY SANDPIPER. 
the shafts : the base of the under mandible of the beak 
is red, the tip l)Lick : the legs are brown, slightly 
tinged with reddish. In the winter the top of the 
head, the nape, the back, the scapulars, and the wing- 
coverts, are greyish-ash colour, with the shafts of the 
feathers dusky : a stripe from the upper mandible to 
the eye, the throat, the breast, the belly, vent, and 
rump, are pure white : the sides are greyish-white : 
between the mouth and the eye is a dusky band : 
the cheeks, the sides, and fore part of the neck are 
clouded with ash-colour and white : the upper tail- 
coverts and the tail itself are rayed transversely with 
dusky-brown and white : the beak is black, with its 
under mandible red at its base : its legs are bright red. 
The young differ in having the upper parts of the 
plumage of an olive-brown tint : the feathers of the 
back are edged with a small white streak : and the 
wing-coverts and the scapulars have several small 
triangular white spots on the edges of their webs : 
all the under parts of the body are white varied with 
numerous zigzag stripes and indistinct spots of ashy- 
brown : the legs are reddish-orange. 
During the periods of moulting, the colours of the 
plumage become more confused as the new feathers 
are developed, and the old ones thrown off. 
Inhabits the north of Europe and America, breed- 
ing in the regions of the Arctic Circle : it has oc- 
curred but seldom in England, few specimens only 
being on record : Montagu mentions two indivi- 
duals having been shot in Devonshire, and Bewick 
two in the north. The Cambridge God wit of Pen- 
nant was shot in the county of that name, and it is 
