70 
TRINGA CINCLUS. 
aloiiif the shores of the ocean, with great rapidity, in * 
kind of waving- serpentine flijtht, alternately throwing 
its dark and white plumage to the eye, it forms a verV 
grand and interesting appearance. At such times th* 
gunners make prodigious slaughter among them ; n hik- 
as the showers of their companions fall, the whole body 
often alight, or descend to the surface ^lith them, ti” 
the sportsman is completely satiated with destruction- 
On some of tliese otaaisions, nhile crowds of thef* 
victims are fluttering along the sand, the small jjigcoS 
hawk, constrained by necessity, ventures to make * 
sweep among the dead in jircsence of the proju-ietof' 
but as suddenly pays for his temerity with his lifc^ 
Such a tyrant is man, n hcn vested with pon er, and 
unrestrained by the dread of responsihility. 
The purre is eight inches in length, and fifteen inclif' 
in extent; the bill is black, straight, or slightly bcflt 
doH-uwards, about an inch and a half long, very thick 
at the base, and tapering to a slender blunt point at tb' 
extremity ; eye, very small ; iris, dark hazel ; checkf- 
gray ; line over the eye, belly, and vent, white ; back 
and scapulars, of an ashy brown, marked here and then* 
with spots of black, bordered n ith bright ferruginous? 
sides of the rump, « bite ; tail-coverts, olive, centred 
with black ; chin, n-hite ; neck below, gray ; breast and 
sides, thinly marked with pale s])ots of dusky, in somei 
])ure white; wings, black, edged and tipt with white? 
two middle tail-feathers, dusky, the rest brown as!'- 
edged with white ; legs and feet, black ; toes bordered 
with a very narrow scalloped mmuhrane. The usiisd 
broad band of white crossing the wing, forms a dis” 
tinguishing characteristic of almost the whole genus. 
On examining more than a hundred of these birds* 
they varied considerably in the black and ferriiginon' 
spots on the back and scapulars ; some were altogethd' 
plain, while others w-ere thickly marked, partimilariy 
on the scapulars, tvith a red rust colour, centred wfik 
black. The females were uniformly more plain lha'* 
the males ; but many of the latter, probably younlT 
birds, were destitute of the ferruginous spots. On the 
