THE SNIPE-TATTLERS. 
307 
colour, with tiny streaks of dusky-brown ; lores dusky-brown ; 
cheeks and under surface of body light cinnamon-rufous, with 
a few dots of dusky black, mostly on the sides of the upper 
breast, the sides of the body with dusky-blackish bars ; under 
tail-coverts again spotted ; axillaries white, barred with blackish ; 
under wing-coverts also white, barred with horse-shoe markings 
of blackish ; bill dark olive ; feet light yellowish-olive ; iris red- 
dish-hazel. Total length, 10 inches; culmen, 2-2 ; wing, 5’S ; 
tail, 2'o ; tarsus, i‘3. 
Adult Female. — Similar to the male in colour, but apparently 
with a longer bill. Total length, ii inches; culmen, 2-9 ; wing, 
5’65 ; tail, I'g ; tarsus, i'i5. 
Adult Male in Winter Plumage. — Uniform ashy-grey above, with 
a few blackish shaft-lines on the feathers of the mantle ; wing- 
coverts darker brown than the back, and fringed with white ; 
quills as in the summer plumage ; centre of the back white ; the 
lower back, rump, and upper tail coverts white, barred with 
black, the bars not always transverse, but sometimes horse-shoe- 
shaped ; tail barred with black and white, the bars complete on 
the centre tail-feathers, but somewhat broken up and irregular 
on the other ones ; crown of head and hind-neck uniform ashy- 
brown ; lores and sides of face dull ashy, with a tolerably broad 
streak of white above the lores, minutely streaked with dusky ; 
the sides of the face also with dusky streaks ; throat, chest, and 
sides of the body white, with dusky streaks on the former and 
small bars on the latter, the lower throat and fore-neck shaded 
with ashy ; lower breast and abdomen pure white, unspotted ; 
under tail-coverts while with distinct black spots ; under wing- 
coverts and axillaries white, with black spots on the former, the 
greater series with bars of an irregular form, the cross-markings 
on the axillaries broken up into spots and irregularly shaped 
bars, some of which are sub-marginal. 
Young Birds. — Are like the winter plumage of the adults, but 
are very much darker ashy-browm ; the feathers of the back black, 
edged with rufous, before which is a mark of black ; the grey on 
the throat is altogether darker, and is washed with rufous, and 
there is a distinct wash of rufous all over the breast and on the 
under tail-coverts ; the bars on the axillaries are distinct, but 
are fewer in number than in the adult. 
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