ASH-COLOURED SANDPIPER. 
67 
summer in Hudson’s Bay, and breeds there. Mr Pennant 
suspects that it also breeds in Denmark ; and says, that 
they appear in vast flocks on the Flintshire shores 
during the winter season.* With us they are also 
migratory, being only seen in spring and autumn. They 
are plump birds ; and, by those accustomed to the 
sedgy taste of this tribe, are esteemed excellent eating. 
The length of this species is ten inches, extent 
twenty; bill, black, straight, fluted to nearly its tip, 
and about an inch and a half long ; upper parts, 
brownish ash, each feather marked near the tip with 
a narrow semicircle of dark brown, bounded by another 
of white ; tail-coverts, white, marbled with olive ; 
wing-quills, dusky, shafts, white ; greater coverts, 
black, tipt with white; some of the primaries edged 
also with white ; tail, plain pale ash, finely edged and 
tipt with white ; crown and hindhead, streaked with 
black, ash, and white ; stripe over the eye, cheeks, and 
chin, white, the former marked with pale streaks of 
dusky, the latter pure; breast, white, thinly specked 
with blackish ; belly and vent, pure white ; legs, a 
dirty yellowish clay colour; toes, bordered with a 
narrow, thick, warty membrane; hind toe, directed 
inwards, as in the turnstone ; claws and eye, black. 
These birds vary a little in colour, some being con- 
siderably darker above, others entirely white below; 
but, in all, the concentric semicircles on the back, 
scapulars, and wing-coverts, are conspicuous. 
I think it probable that these birds become much 
lighter coloured during the summer, from the circum- 
stance of having shot one late in the month of June, 
at Cape May, which was of a pale drab or dun colour. 
It was very thin and emaciated ; and on examination 
appeared to have been formerly wounded, which no 
doubt occasioned its remaining behind its companions. 
Early in December I examined the same coast every 
day for nearly two weeks, without meeting with more 
than one solitary individual of this species, although 
Arctic Zoology') p. 474. 
