THE BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 
283 
Inch. Line. 
Length of hind toe and nail ...... 0 3 
of biU from forehead to point . . . . . 1 3f 
Breadth of bill at base (now dried up) ... ..02^ 
Height of bill from base of upper to that of lower mandible . 0 4 
Tibia bare of feathers for about ...... 0 4 
Temminck’s description (vol. ii. p. 616, 2nd edit.) of the plumage 
of the young’ bird before its first moult and of the nuptial garb show 
singularly little difference in a species belonging to this family, and 
Mr. Yarrell, having both the old bird in its breeding plumage and 
the young of the year before him, remarks that “ the young bird so 
closely resembles the parent in its plumage at this season that it is 
unnecessary to describe it.” My specimen agrees with the descrip- 
tions of these authors, excepting in what the ornithologist will be 
prepared to expect of a bird killed in the month of October — that 
the rufous tints throughout the plumage (margining the feathers, &c.) 
have all but disappeared, and are replaced by white. The winter 
plumage I have not seen described, but fortunately the presence of a 
few winter feathers on the back and wings of the present specimen 
sufficiently indicate that a change from black to grey, analogous to the 
seasonal change which takes place in the dunlin, likewise occurs in 
this species. The hue of these feathers, however, resembles more the 
pretty grey colour of the phalarope than the pale brownish grey of the 
dunlin — or purre, as it has been termed in winter plumage. 
The broad bill and the peculiar marking of the head are the most 
obvious distinctive characters of this species. The dimensions of the 
bill have already been given : the plumage of the head may be thus 
described — from base of upper mandible to top of head, a narrow 
blackish-brown band, which broadens towards the hinder part of the 
head ; on either side of this from the bill to the upper part of the eye, 
and continued over it, is a white streak, bounded by a dark brown 
band, which reaches from the side of the bill to the eye ; throat white. 
This is a very interesting species to the ornithologist, from the cir- 
cumstance of its presenting the characters of different genera. Its 
general aspect — ^body plumage, delicate tarsi and feet, — is that of a 
Tringa^ but in the form of the head, breadth between the eyes and 
broad base of bill we are reminded of the genus Scolopax, or true 
snipes, as we likewise are in the brown and white banding of the head, 
in which latter respect it likewise resembles the whimbrel {Numenius 
