258 
RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 
In winter. 
Bill greenish-black, eye of a darker brown. Feet dull yellowish-green ; 
claws dusky. The upper parts are deep ash-grey, each feather margined 
with whitish ; feathers of the rump greyish-white, upper tail-coverts white, 
barred with dusky. The quills and tail feathers as iii summer. A band 
from the bill over the eye to the hind part of head, white ; loral space, 
cheeks, and sides of the neck pale grey, streaked with darker ; throat and 
lower parts in general, white ; the sides, axillar feathers, and under wing- 
coverts, barred or spotted with dusky ; lower tail-coverts as in summer. 
The young in autumn are of a dull light brownish-grey colour above, each 
feather having a narrow whitish margin, within which is a dusky line. The 
fore part and sides of the neck, and the fore part of the breast dull greyish- 
white, with small dusky-grey longitudinal streaks ; the band over the eye 
indistinct, the loral space darker. The bill and feet are of a duller tint, and 
the eye darker, than in the adult in winter. Weight 44 oz. 
On the roof of the mouth is a double series of small blunt papillae. The 
tongue is very slender, 1 T V inches long, emarginate and papillate at the base, 
channelled above, horny beneath, the point rather acute. The oesophagus is 
44 inches long, narrow, its diameter 34 twelfths. The proventriculus is 
oblong, 54 twelfths in diameter, 9 twelfths long. The stomach is an ex- 
tremely powerful gizzard, of a roundish form, 1 inch and 5 twelfths long, its 
greatest breadth 14 inches ; the cuticular lining thin, horny, with large longi- 
tudinal nig®. The intestine 25 inches long, its average diameter 34 twelfths; , 
coeca cylindrical, 3 twelfths long. The contents of the stomach are frag- 
ments of mussels and gravel, with which part of the intestine is also filled. 
The trachea is 34 inches long, flattened, 24 twelfths broad at the top, 
diminishing to 2 twelfths ; its rings very slender and unossified, 98 in num- 
ber ; the bronchial half-rings about 15. The lateral muscles very thin, the 
sterno-tracheal slender. 
