BIRDS OF NEW ZEALAND NOT FIGURED BY BULLER. 
most pairs white, black on the terminal half ; feathers round the eye white ; chin and 
throat white ; cheeks, fore-neck, chest and sides of body brownish-grey; breast, abdomen 
and under tail-coverts white ; under wing-coverts blackish-brown, broadly margined with 
white ; axillaries uniform dull black. Total length about 400 mm.: culmen 89, wing 212, 
tail 75, tarsus 60. Figured. Monte Prov. : Buenos Aires, South America, Dec.-Jan., 
1897. 
Young in first winter 'plumage . Similar to the adult in winter, but recognisable by retained 
juvenile wing-coverts. (Forbush.) 
Young in juvenile plumage. Very different from the adult. Crown-feathers with dark brown 
centres ; back of the neck a rather sooty-brown with fulvous and dull ashy edgings; the 
bases of the back feathers dull ashy, with subterminal margins of blackish, bordered at the 
tip or outer edge with dull buffy or fulvous ; rump dark ashy or blockish; upper tail- 
coverts white ; tail as in the adult, but duller, with the markings less defined; under 
tail-coverts with some ashy-brown wash, no barrings; the sides of the head pale fulvous, 
mottled dull ashy ; a band of dull fulvous across the breast: elsewhere below dull fulvous 
(*-). 
Nest. “ A depression in the ground lined with a few decayed leaves.” 
Eggs. Clutch four. Oval pyriform in shape, with little or no gloss. The ground-colour varies 
from dark olive-buff to olive-buff, or from light brownish-olive to ecrue-olive. They are 
usually sparingly marked with rather obscure spots, irregularly distributed, but generally 
mostly around the larger end, in darker shades of similar colours, such as buffv-olive, light 
brownish-olive, buffy-brown, bistre or sepia. There are usually underlying spots of hair- 
brown or shades of drab and some eggs have a few black dots at the larger end. Average 
measurements of 27 eggs are 55*2 mm. by 38T (60*6 by 39*6; 56 by 41*2 ; 51 by 35). 
“ The sexes are alike in the juvenile plumage and probably all through the 
first year. The plumages are alike in winter, but the females are somewhat 
larger. Adult have an extensive pre-nuptial moult, involving everything 
but the wings and perhaps the tail. This is accomplished during the late 
winter or early spring before the birds migrate. The body moult begins in 
July and is well advanced towards completion in August or September ; the 
wings are apparently moulted later, after the birds reach their winter homes 
in South America. 
“ There is a striking difference between the richly coloured nuptial plumage 
and the dull and sombre winter plumage, with the brownish-grey upper-parts 
and the pale greyish-buff under-parts. 
“ The sexes in breeding-plumage differ. In the male the under-parts are 
deep, rich brown, with much individual variation in the amount of black 
transverse barring, which is sometimes almost entirely lacking in the centre 
of the breast. In the female, which is always somewhat larger, the under- 
parts are barred with white, dusky and brown ; the feathers of the flanks are 
brown, with three or four black or dusky bars and broad white tips; on the 
breast only the outer half of the feather is brown, the remainder is white, with 
two or three dusky bars and a broad white tip. 
“ The bird swims with ease and its flight is distinctly ‘ploverish.’ It is 
a fairly silent species, their call-note is a soft chip (very unlike the harsh notes of 
the vociferous marbled [Godwit] ), and when alarmed they utter a loud Sand¬ 
piperlike chattering.” 
114 
