250 allen’s naturalist’s library. 
numerously distributed, and consisting of blackish-brown spots 
and confluent blotches, as well as tiny dots ; the underlying 
spots are pale grey. A.xis, 1-55 inch; diam., 1-05. 
tub: stints, genus limonite.s. 
Limonites, Kaup. Natiirl. Syst. p. 55 (1829). 
Type, L. viinuia (Leisl.). 
I’he Stints consist of five species, of which three belong to 
the British list. They are all birds of small size and may be 
distinguished from the Dunlins by having the culmen as nearly 
as possible of the same length as the tarsus, while the latter is 
of about the same length as the middle toe and claw. By this 
last character they can be distinguished from the Pectoral 
Sandpipers {Heterofiygia), in which genus the tarsus is longer 
than the middle toe and claw. 
L. minuta is the species of Europe and Western Asia, and 
is replaced in Eastern Asia by L. ruficollis and L. sub-minuta. 
L. minutilla is North American, and L. temmincki is found 
both in Northern Europe and Asia, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, All the species migrate far to the south in winter. 
I. THE LITTLE STINT. LIMONITES MINUTA. 
Tringa minuta, Leisl. in Bcchst. Naturg. Deutschl. Nachtr. i. 
p. 74 (1812); Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 227 (1852) ; Dresser, 
B. Eur. viii. p. 29, pi. 549, fig. i. (1871); Saunders, ed. 
Yarrell, Brit. B. iii. p. 386 (1883) ; B. O. U. List Brit. 
B. p. 169 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 204 
(1885); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 571 (1889); Lilford, 
Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xix. (1891). 
Limonites minuta, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 539 
(1896). 
Adult in Winter Plumage. — General colour above ashy-brown, 
slightly darker along the shafts ; lower back, rump, and upper 
tail-coverts blackish-brown ; sides of lower back and lateral 
upper tail-coverts pure white ; tail feathers light smoky-brown, 
the long central ones dark brown, with a very narrow whitish 
fringe ; wing-coverts rather darker brown than the back, with 
ashy fringes to the median series, the greater coverts tipped 
