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ALLEN’S naturalist’s LIBRARY. 
adults, but they may always be distinguished by the more 
numerous white edgings to the dorsal and scapular feathers, by 
the ashy colour of the hind-neck, hy the absence of spots on 
the fore-neck and chest, both of which are tinged with isabel- 
line-buff. 
Nestling.— Mottled with rufous and black down, the tips 
of which are silvery-white or sandy-buff, the hind-neck sandy- 
buff forming a collar ; the crown of the head is black, slightly 
mottled with rufous and dotted with silvery-white, the black 
extending in a line on the forehead, which is buff, continued 
into a somewhat broad eyebrow; a black loral line and a black 
spot on each side of the hinder crown as well as on the ear- 
coverts ; under surface of body whitish, with a tinge of sandy- 
buff on the lower throat. 
Eange in Great Britain.— The Little Stint visits us in autumn 
and spring, much more frequently at the former season, when 
flocks are sometimes observed on the eastern coasts. It is 
never very plentiful in the north, and on our western shores it 
is practically unknown. To Ireland it is also a rare visitor, 
and is only found on the eastern shores. 
Eange outside the British Islands.- The present species breeds 
on the tundras of Northern Europe from Scandinavia to the 
Taimyr Peninsular, in Siberia. The late Professor Taezanow- 
ski separated the Siberian bird as a distinct race, which he 
called minuta orientalis, but specimens from Kake 
Baikal in the Seebohm collection cannot be separated from 
true Z minuta. The Little Stint has been found breeding in 
Finmark, in the Kola Peninsula, near Archangel, and in the 
valleys of the Petchora and the Yenesei, as well as by Mid- 
dendorf in the Taimyr Peninsula, where the first authentic 
eggs were obtained. In winter the species goes south as far 
as the Cape of Good Hope, the Indian Peninsula, and Ceylon. 
In Eastern Siberia the Little Stint is replaced by the Red- 
necked Stint (Z. ruftcollis), which migrates by way of China 
and the Malay Archipelago to Australia in winter. 
HaBits. — In its appearance and habits the Little Stint is a 
miniature Dunlin, and only its small size distinguishes it from 
those birds, with which it is also frequently found in company. 
Jn the autumn, single birds, and those nearly always birds 
