868 
TRINGOIDES IIYPOLEUCUS. 
pale brown, with deep white tips, a subterminal band of dark brown, and the outer webs barred with brown, the 
white predominating on the lateral feathers ; a whitish supercilium extending forward to the bill ; through the lores 
a brown stripe continued behind the eye ; cheeks and sides of neck greyish brown, with dark central stripes ; sides 
of the chest brownish ; chin, fore neck and under surface, the upper part of throat, and from the centre of the 
chest to the under tail-coverts unmarked ; the fore neck with narrow brown shaft-streaks ; axillary plume and 
median under wing-coverts pure white ; lesser under wing-coverts white, with dark bases. 
Summer plumage. Male (Cardiganshire, June). Length 7 - 8 inches ; wing 3 - 0, expanse 9-3 ; tail 2 '3 ; tarsus 1/0 ; 
middle toe 0-82 ; bill to gape 1/1. 
Bill olive-brown, tip blackish, lower mandible and gape pale olivaceous fleshy, tip dusky ; legs and feet pale leaden 
grey, toes tinged with yellowish. 
Head and upper surface a darker brown than in winter, and illumined with a more brilliant green lustre, equally strong 
on the wing-coverts and back ; the interscapular region, scapulars, and tertials with wavy cross bars of brown ; 
rump unmarked ; upper tail-coverts crossed with brown ; white portion of the inner web almost obsolete on the 
2nd primary, and much smaller on the 3rd than the 4th ; face, ear-coverts, and loral stripe darker than in the 
above ; stripes of the fore neck and chest bolder, and these parts washed with brownish ; stripes also present on' 
the chin. 
Ohs. The darker and more glossy summer dress is acquired, as in other Scolopacine birds, by a change of colour ; but 
a partial moult takes place, as in other genera, in the spring. I have March examples killed in Ceylon with here 
and there a new feather. Schrenck, in writing of Auioor-river specimens, notices that the white patch on the 
inner w T ebs of the primaries extends to the 2nd quill, while in European examples it terminates at the 3rd. There 
is doubtless a tendency to more of the white coloration in Asiatic birds than in European ; but the latter 
frequently have the white patch on the 2nd quill in a greater or less degree, and yearling birds in Ceylon only 
have a small amount of white on that quill, so that, to a certain degree, it is a characteristic of age. 
Young ( nestling in down). Ashy grey, mottled with black on the back, and with a central stripe down the back ; through 
the lores a black line, and another on the head. 
Bird of the year (September, Ceylon). Bill blackish brown, base slaty ; legs and feet slaty greenish, toes dusky. 
Brown of the head and back darker than in adults, and the head aud hind neck with the shaft-stripes indistinct ; 
the feathers of the back, scapulars, aud wing-coverts with regular subterminal blackish-brown bars aud buff-grey 
tips, the barring broadest on the scapulars aud wing-coverts ; upper tail-coverts marked hi the same way, but 
not so boldly ; the ground-colour of the lateral feathers wholly white, barred completely across with blackish 
brown ; secondaries very deeply tipped with white, and the inner primaries narrowly tipped with the same ; 
frontal feathers edged with whitish ; fore neck less conspicuously striped with brown than in adults ; towards the 
middle of the season ( January ) the whitish or buff tips wear off, and in the following March the immature 
plumage is chiefly noticeable on the wing-coverts. The yearling barred and tipped dress is not fully acquired 
until September, specimens shot in that month still having partly green tail-feathers. 
Ohs. There is considerable variation in the colour of the light tipping on the wing-coverts. In a large series of 
immature birds examined in the Swinhoe collection from China, I find that they are buff in some specimens and 
whitish in others. A dozen individuals in this series vary in the wing from 44) to 4-5 inches. Indian and 
Yarkand specimens fall within my Ceylonese limits of measurement. 
Trinyoules macularius, the Spotted Sandpiper, is the American representative of this species. 
Distribution. — This elegant and widely-spread Sandpiper is very abundant in Ceylon, being diffused 
throughout all the low' country, and an inhabitant of the borders of streams and rivers in the Central 
Provinces up to a general altitude of 3000 feet. Since, however, the Nuwara Lake has been formed, it finds 
its way to that elevated locality. On the Maha Eliya, at Horton Plains, I did not meet with it ; but it 
may occasionally be found there. It is a winter visitant to Ceylon, arriving very early in August, and 
departing as late as the last week in May or beginning of June. At Colombo I have seen it during the first 
week in June, and at Kandelay tank on the 3rd of August, by the end of which month a good many used to 
be seen about Trincomalie. It would seem, therefore, that it can scarcely migrate to Northern Asia in so 
short a time ; and I can hardly believe that some do not remain throughout the year in the island, though it 
