from Tangiers and Trebizond ; Mr. E. C. Taylor states that it occasionally occurs in small flocks in Egypt ;
Dr. Andrew Smith obtained it in South Africa. At Natal, Mr. J. H. Gurney says, it ‘‘ may be found feeding
at low water amongst the mud and weeds in the bay; it is gregarious and is, I think, only found here in
winter ; is occasionally seen in considerable flights on the mud flats and borders of pools in the
Transvaal. It is very shy and difficult of approach, and its flight is very rapid. This species has also
been obtained by Mr. Andersson at Walvisch Bay ;” according to Mr. C. A. Wright it is very common in
Malta in the spring, part of the summer, and in autumn. Lord Lilford says it is rather common in the
Ionian Islands ‘‘in April and May, particularly on the race-course of Corfu, an excellent locality for birds
of many species at various seasons;” and Lieut. Sperling that about Missolonghi, in Greece, it was rather
rare in the early part of December. Specimens were obtained by the Rev. H. B. Tristram in Palestine.
Mr. Jerdon informs us that ‘the Little Stint is very abundant throughout India in winter, associating in
large flocks, and feeding on marshy ground, rice-fields, and the edges of tanks and rivers. It is very
excellent eating ;” Captain Irby, that in Oudh and Kumaon it is ‘‘ very common in flocks during the cold
season.” Mr. Swinhoe enumerates it among the birds observed by him between Takoo and Peking in
north China, in his list of the birds of Amoy, and, in his notes on the ornithology of Foochow, says it Is
seen on the coast in September, chiefly on its way to more southerly regions, to pass up again in March or
the commencement of April. In those months it is often found by inland salt marshes with other species of
the same and allied forms and the Great Snipe (Galhinago megala, Swinh.) and, lastly, Mr. H. Whitely
states that he observed this bird in small flocks on the sea-shore at Hakodadi, in Japan, in the autumn, and
shot two specimens near the end of September.

Meyer says the Little Stint sleeps in the early part of the day, and if approached runs a short distance
very quickly and then takes wing, its flight being rapid, but rather unsteady, and with arched wings. It is
kept in confinement without difficulty.

Its note is said by one writer to resemble the words deer-deer, and by another stiné-stint, whence perhaps
one of its trivial names.

The above desultory notes comprise all I can find recorded respecting this Sandpiper, to which I have only
to add that it is represented in America by a species which mainly differs in being of a still smaller size, and
in Australia by another which is distinguished from it by having a larger amount of red on the sides of the
neck and throat and in having a smaller bill.

In summer the head and neck are rusty red, speckled with black; the feathers of the back, scapularies,
wing-coyerts, tertiaries, and upper tail-coverts brownish black, broadly margined with rufous and white ;
primaries black, with white shafts; secondaries similar, but tipped with white ; cbin, breast, axillaries, and
under surface of the body pure white ; sides of the neck and chest rufous, speckled with black ; irides dark
brown; bill black ; legs, toes, and claws brownish black.

Ip the autumn all the colours are much paler, and there is a considerable mixture of grey and buffy white
on the margins of the feathers of the upper parts of the body.

In winter the grey tint becomes still more conspicuous, —the head and neck being ash-grey, with a darker
line down each feather; the upper surface is very similar; the primaries and secondaries are in the same
state as in autumn; but the tertiaries become ashy brown with lighter margins, and the tail ashy grey nar-
rowly edged with white.

The figures represent a male and a female, in the dress of summer; the bird in the distance the plumage
of winter or a young bird. The maritime plant is the Sea-holly (Eryngium maritimum).