328 
ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. 
ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER TRINGA CINEREA. 
Plate LVII. Fig. 2. 
Arct. Zool. p. 474, No. 386. — Bewick, ii. p. 102. — Beale's Museum, No. 4060. 
TRINGA CANUTUS. — ~Lmv(m\js. — Plumage of the young.* 
Synonyms of young: Tringa calidris, Linn. i. 252. — Tringa naevia, Lath . Ind. Orn . 
ii. 732. — Maubeche tachete, Buff. — Freckled Sandpiper, Arct. Zool. ii. p. 480. 
The regularly disposed concentric semicircles of white and 
dark brown that mark the upper parts of the plumage of this 
species, distinguish it from all others, and give it a very neat 
appearance. In activity it is superior to the preceding ; and 
traces the flowing and recession of the waves along the sandy 
* This beautiful Sandpiper has also, from its changes, been described 
under various names, and our author has well represented the states of the 
young and summer plumage, in his Ash-coloured, and Red-breasted Sandpipers 
of the present plate. In the winter plumage of the adult, the upper parts are 
of a uniform gray, and want the black and light edges, represented in Fig. 2. 
America and Europe seem the only countries of the Knot. I have never seen 
it from India, but have a single specimen of a Knot from New Holland, very 
similar, and which I considered identical, until a closer examination has led me 
to have doubts on the subject. Like the other migratory species, they only 
appear on our coasts in autumn, on their return with their broods, or more 
sparingly in spring, when on their way north. The young possess a good deal 
of the rufous colour on the under parts, which leaves them as the winter 
approaches. I once met a large flock on the east side of Holy Island, in the 
month of September, which were so tame as to allow me to kill as many as I 
wanted with stones from the beach : it may have been on their first arrival, when 
they were fatigued. I have a specimen, in full plumage, killed by a boy on 
Portobello sands by the same means. In general they are rather shy, and it 
is only in their wheeling round that a good shot can be obtained. Before 
the severity of the winter sets in, they are fat, and are sought after by persons 
who know them, for the table. 
There is a peculiarity in the gregarious Tringce, and most ofth e Charadriadce, 
which is very nearly confined to these tribes, — the simultaneous flight, and the 
acting as it were by concert in their wheels and evolutions. Among none is 
it more conspicuous than in this species ; and every one who has been on the 
shore during winter, on a day gleaming and cloudy, may have seen the masses 
