SPOTTED BED SHANK. 
145 
shell-fish; but it is particularly asserted of it, that it is not 
a ‘Vegetarian’ in any degree. 
Savi, the Italian ornithologist, likens the note to the 
syllables ‘chi-o, chi-o.’ Meyer to ‘tshuit, tshuit,’ quickly 
uttered. 
In this species the plumage of the upper parts is silky 
and soft in its texture, but those of the under parts close 
set and downy. Male; weight, about five ounces; length, 
one foot and about half an inch, to one foot two inches; 
the bill, long, slender, and a little turned up for about half 
its length towards the tip, is nearly black in summer, in 
winter glossy black, except the base of the lower mandible, 
which, in the former season, is bright red, and in the latter 
not so bright; in winter there is a dusky streak, and over it 
again a white one, from the base of the bill to the eye. 
Iris, dark brown; the eyelid under the eye, white. Head, 
crown, neck on the back, and nape, in summer, sooty black— 
in winter, grey; chin, white in winter; throat, in summer, sooty 
black—in winter, on the front and sides, greyish white. Breast, 
in summer, black, with white tips to a few of the feathers; 
in winter, white, and on the sides slightly tinged and streaked 
with grey. Back above, in summer, sooty black, with white 
tips and margins; in winter, more grey, below white. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest; the 
axillary plume is white; when closed, they reach a little 
beyond the tail: they expand to very nearly two feet. Greater 
wing coverts, in summer, sooty black, the feathers edged, 
margined, and tipped with well-defined triangular-shaped 
spots of pure white; in winter greyish brown, tipped and 
edged with white in alternate bars; lesser wing coverts, also 
in summer, sooty black, with the tips and margins white; 
in winter grey margined with white; primaries, in summer, 
black, the first with the shaft white; in winter greyish or 
dusky black; secondaries and tertiaries, in summer, sooty black, 
with the margins and tips of the feathers white; greater 
and lesser under wing coverts, white, with dusky grey spots. 
Tail, in summer, greyish black, with narrow transverse white 
bars; in winter the middle feathers barred with blackish grey 
and grey; the outer ones on each side barred with blackish 
grey and white; upper tail coverts, barred in summer with 
black and white, in winter with dusky grey and white; under 
tail coverts, barred with black and white in summer, in winter 
white. The legs, which are long and slender, and unfeathered 
vol. v. L 
