36 
dark brown, with white shafts ; tail-feathers paler brown, with white shafts. Irides and hill black ; legs 
greyish black. Length 10 inches ; wing, from flexure, 6-25 ; tail 2-25 ; hill, along the ridge 1-3, along the 
edge of lower mandible 1'4 ; bare tibia ‘5 ; tarsus 1’2 ; middle toe and claw 1 ; hind toe and claw ’25. 
Adult in summer . Differs in having the plumage of the back brownish black, varied more or less with broad 
round spots of rufous j the sides of the head, throat, fore neck, breast, upper part of the abdomen, and sides 
of the body bright rufous ; some of the feathers narrowly margined with white. 
A specimen in full summer plumage, shot in the vicinity of Christchurch on the 2nd April, and 
preserved in the Museum, presents the following measurements : — ^Extreme length 9 inches ; wing, from 
flexure, 6‘4; tail 2'25 ; bill, along the ridge 1'15, along the edge of lower mandible 1'15 ; bare tibia '55 ; 
tarsus I'lSj middle toe and claw 1‘15; hallux ‘25. 
Another example in rust-red plumage was obtained by Reischek on the sand-banks in Manukau harbour. 
Young. Readily distinguished by the crescentic markings on the upper parts, each feather having a narrow sub- 
terminal streak of black ; the scapulars, wing-coverts, and long secondaries margined beyond with white. 
Var. Mr. Cheeseman informs me that when out shooting at Manukau harbour he observed an albino. He did 
his utmost to secure it, but the bird was very shy and eluded him. 
Obs. There are two noticeable specimens in the Auckland Museum. One of these has the sides of the face, fore 
part and sides of neck, and the whole of the breast pale rufous ; primaries and secondaries slaty black, the 
latter margined on their outer vanes with white ; tail-feathers slaty grey with a very narrow margin of 
white. In the other there are only clouded markings of the rufous colour on the same parts. In both birds 
the upper surface is prettily variegated with slaty black, the crescentic bars on the upper tail-coverts being 
very conspicuous. 
In Mr. J. C. Firth s interesting collection of New-Zealand birds (at Mount Eden) there is another 
beautiful specimen : Cheeks, throat, and fore neek chestnut-brown ; the upper surface generally very 
prettily barred and spotted, the transverse markings on the tail-coverts being especially conspicuous. 
Note, Dr. Finsch has suggested that the bird which visits New Zealand may be Tringa crassirostris y Temm. and 
Schleg. (Faun. Jap. pi. 64), the larger eastern representative of canutus ; but I have not been able to discover 
any specific characters to distinguish it from the common form. 
This cosmopolitan species is occasionally obtained in New Zealand, but generally in its winter 
plumage. There are several specimens in the Canterbury and Otago Museums, all of them obtained 
on the east coast. 
Mr. Cheeseman wrote to me from Auckland, on August 14, 1877 “ My brother shot a speci- 
men of Tnnga canutus (in winter plumage) in Hobson Bay a few months ago, and the skin is now in 
the Museum. I believe that I have frequently seen it on the extensive mud flats near the mouth of 
the Thames river. I have likewise seen it, in flocks of probably two hundred, on the Manukau flats, 
where it appears soon after Christmas and remains about three months.” This is the first authentic 
record of this species in the North Island ; but Captain Mair has described to me a bird found 
associating, in considerable numbers, with the Godwit on the East Coast, which I have no doubt 
is the same. It has not, however, been met with yet on the Wellington coasts ; and the only specimen 
in the Colonial Museum is one which I received some years ago, as a novelty, from the South Island. 
It is called Huahou by the Maoris, from the circumstance that its fat-season corresponds with the 
forming of the hue gourd— about February or March. 
Mr. Gould states that a specimen collected by Strange on the 2nd September had the under 
surface much suffused with red, with many new black feathers among the grey ones on the hack 
showing that the bird was changing into its summer livery at the commencement of the Australian 
spring. 
