TOWILLEE, OR CURWILLET.

(Charadrius Calidris, Lin.-Maubeche, Buff.)

THIS bird weighs almost two ounces; is about eight inches in length, and fifteen in breadth, from tip to tip. The bill is an inch long, slender, black and grooved on the sides nearly from the tip to the nostril; the brow to the eyes white; the rest of the head pale ash colour, mottled in brown streaks from the forehead to the hinder part of the neck, and on each side of the upper part of the breast; back, scapulars, and greater coverts,

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brownish ash, edged with dull white, and irregularly marked with dark brown spots. The pinions, lesser coverts, and bastard wings, dark brown; the quills, which extend beyond the tail, are of the same colour on their exterior webs and points, except four of the middle ones, which are white on the outer webs, forming, when the wing is closed, a sharp wedge-shaped spot; inner webs brownish ash; the secondary quills are brown, tipped with white; the rump and tail coverts are also brown, edged with dirty white; the tail feathers brownish ash, edged with a lighter colour, the two middle ones much darker than the rest; the throat, fore part of the neck, the breast, belly, thighs and vent, are white; the toes and legs black, and bare a little above the knees. This bird is of a slender form, and its plumage has a hoary appearance among the Stints, with which it associates on the sea-shore, in various parts of Great Britain. It wants the hinder toe, and has, in other respects, the look of the Plover and Dotterel, to which family it belongs.

Latham says, this bird, like the Purre, and some others, varies considerably, either from age or the season; for those he received in August, had the upper parts dark ash coloured, and the feathers deeply edged with a ferruginous colour; but others sent him in January were of a plain dove-coloured grey; they differed also in some other trifling particulars.*

The specimen from which this drawing and description were taker, was furnished by the Rev. H. Cotes, of Bedlington; and it is the only one which the author has had an opportunity of examining.

(Charadrius himantopus, Lin.-L'Echasse, Buff.)

ITs slender black bill is two inches and a half long, from the tip of which to the end of the tail it measures only about thirteen inches; but to the toes a foot and a half. The wings are long, measuring, from tip to tip, twenty-nine inches; irides red; the crown of the head, the back and wings, of a glossy black; tail light grey, except the two outside feathers, which are white; as are all the other parts of its plumage, except a few dusky spots on the back of the neck. Its long, weak, and disproportionate legs are of a blood red, and measure, from the foot to the upper naked part of the thigh, about eight inches; the toes are short, and the outer and middle ones are connected by a membrane at the base. Ornithologists mention only a few instances of this