168 
SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 
and is composed of short pieces of dry straw, or other such 
materials as furnished by the locality. 
The eggs are of a pale reddish white colour, spotted and 
speckled with grey and brown of a darker and lighter shade. 
They are four in number. The young, as soon as hatched, 
run about with wonderful speed. 
Male; length, about six inches and three quarters or over; 
upper bill, dusky; the under one dusky towards the tip, and 
dull yellowish red about the base; a dusky streak goes from 
it to and behind the eye. Iris, dusky; the eye-streak, 
white; forehead, white. Head on the crown, neck on the 
hack, and nape, olivaceous brown, marked with dusky spots 
of an elongated form on the feathers; neck on the sides, 
chin, throat, and breast, white, with numerous distinct 
round spots and transverse marks of dusky greenish brown 
on the sides of the last-named; below, white. Back above, 
olivaceous purple brown; in winter many of the feathers are 
black, with greyish white margins, the rest grey, marbled 
with pale brown, having the shafts alone black; below, 
white. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest; greater 
wing coverts, grey, with darker centres to the feathers, and 
tipped with white, some of the lesser wing coverts also grey, 
with darker centres. Of the primaries the first is brownish 
black, the shafts of it and the next, white; the rest with a 
white spot on the middle of the inner web; secondaries, tipped 
with white; tertiaries, grey, with black shafts, and barred 
upon the outer part of the webs with black and pale ash 
grey; in winter margined with white, and faintly barred with 
a deeper shade of brown. The tail has, in summer, the two 
middle feathers greyish white; in winter, white, marked with 
zigzag lines and bars of pale brown; the outer feathers wholly 
white, except a longitudinal streak of brown upon the outer 
web. The outer feather on each side has the outer web 
white, barred with greenish black; upper tail coverts, w 7 hite, 
in summer barred with brown. Legs and toes, greenish grey; 
claws, dusky brown. 
The male and female are nearly alike. 
The young are at first covered with dull yellowish brown 
down, with a streak of black behind the eye, and one down 
the back. Subsequently indications of the spots appear, and 
they shew themselves ostensibly in the winter. 
