which is the colour of the remaining under parts. The back and scapular feathers are brownish-black, glossed with purple, each feather being deeply margined with pale orange-brown. The rump, wings (except the quills), and tail, are hair-brown; the feathers on the shoulders edged with greyish-white; greater coverts edged with pale rufous, and the long tertials, of a deeper tint at the ends, are margined, and have a second intermediate angular marking of rufous-orange. The tail is tipped with rufous, and also is clouded there with clove-brown; the lateral tail-coverts are white. This specimen stands nearly ten inches high. In another specimen, shot on the Pentland Hills in spring, and thought to be a female, though not dissected, the whole plumage has a more rufous tint, and is more broken with brown upon the head and back of the neck, but varies remarkably in size, standing scarcely more than seven inches in height.

TRINGE.

THE true Tringa, or Maritime Sandpipers, may be placed next. They are gregarious at all times, except during incubation, assembling in vast flocks, and frequenting, almost entirely, the sea shores, or marshes adjacent to them, a few being found in pairs, on the shores of our largest inland lakes, while breeding. Their changes during summer are black and chestnut, or grey and black.

TRINGA OF AUTHORS.- Generic characters.-Bill of the same length, or slightly longer than the head, often gently curved, soft and pliable; wings rather long, sharp pointed, the first quill longest; tarsi and feet of middle length (proportionally shorter than in Limosa, Totanus, or Machetes;) toes slightly joined at the base, and narrowly fringed on the edges with a membrane; hallux small, articulated on the tarsus. Types, T. canutus, variabilis, maritima, &c. Note.-Gregarious in winter. Cosmopolite.