LONG-LEGGED SANDPIPER. 
149 
purplish gloss, and the spots inclining more to white 
on the coverts : the smaller coverts on the ridge of 
the wing plain dusky black : primary and secondary 
quills, and first row of greater coverts immediately 
impending them black, slightly tipped with white, 
except three or four of the first feathers : the shaft 
of the first quill is white : upper part of the rump 
black, with a few streaks of white ; lower rump and 
upper tail-coverts white : those next the tail spotted 
with black : the tail consists of twelve feathers, the 
middlemost rather the largest ; these are barred with 
black and white alternately, a little oblique : on the 
outer webs are eight black bars, on the inner webs 
six ; the next feather has six bars on the outer and 
four on the inner web ; the third has five and three 
bars in the same manner ; the fourth has five and 
one ; the fifth and outer feathers are only spotted on 
the margin of the outer web, with one spot on the 
inner web of the former ; the latter is plain white on 
the interior web ; the black bars on the middle 
feathers do not exactly correspond : those on the 
inner webs rise higher at the shaft, and often run 
into the superior bar on the outer web : the legs are 
of an olive-green, long and slender, measuring three 
inches from the knee to the end of the middle toe, 
and bare of feathers one inch above the knee." 
This bird, which was first noticed by that active 
and zealous British naturalist Montagu, and described 
as above mentioned by him, was shot on the coast of 
South Devon in August ; and upon dissection proved 
to be a male. In the second volume of his Orni- 
thological Dictionary, he describes it as the Wood 
