Tringa minuta Leisler, in Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl. (1812), 1,
74; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 273, fig. 63 (head).
Limonites minuta Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 538;
Hand-List (1899), 1, 163; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 52;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 27.
Mindanao (Mearns). Northern Europe and northern Asia to Lake
Baikal; in winter Africa, Indian Peninsula, and Ceylon.
"Adult in winter plumage.--General color above ashy brown, slightly
darker along the shafts; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts
blackish brown; sides of lower back and lateral upper tail-coverts
pure white; tail-feathers light smoky brown, the long central ones
dark brown, with a very narrow whitish fringe; wing-coverts rather
darker brown than the back, with ashy fringes to the median series;
greater coverts tipped with white, forming a wing-band; alula and
primary-coverts blackish brown, edged with white at tips; quills dark
brown, with white shafts, a few of the inner primaries also edged
with white near the base; secondaries dark brown, fringed with white
at the tips, bases of inner webs white, forming a continuous band
with the one on greater coverts; long inner secondaries light brown
like scapulars, the shafts blackish brown; crown brown like the back,
the feathers with darker brown centers; forehead and supra-loral region
pure white; lores dusky brown; ear-coverts and feathers below eye light
brown, with narrow streaks of dark brown; above ear-coverts a streak of
white lined with brown, forming an indistinct eyebrow; cheeks, throat,
and under surface pure white slightly ashy on throat and fore neck;
sides of neck and upper breast brown, with slightly darker centers or
shaft-streaks; under wing-coverts and axillars white; coverts round
edge of wing dark brown, with white margins; lower primary-coverts
dull ashy brown, forming an inconspicuous wing-patch. 'Bill, feet,
and claw black; iris hazel.' (Seebohm.) Length, 132; culmen, 18;
wing, 96; tail, 41; tarsus, 20; middle toe with claw, 18.
"Adult male in summer plumage.--Much more rufous than in winter;
feathers of upper surface sandy rufous; black centers and white
margins to many of the scapulars and feathers of the back; feathers
of head rufous, with black centers; neck rufous, streaked with dusky
blackish, these streaks being smaller and less distinct on sides of
face, which are also rufous; a slight indication of a whitish eyebrow;
under surface white, throat tinged with rufous, chest pervaded with
ashy, and throat, fore neck, and sides of breast mottled with dusky
spots in the centers of the feathers. Length, 152; culmen, 19; wing,
96; tail, 36; tarsus, 20.
"Adult female in summer plumage.--Similar to the male, but somewhat
less distinctly spotted on the breast. Length, 152; culmen, 18; wing,
98; tail, 37; tarsus, 20.
"Young.--Blackish above, with rufous edgings to the feathers, and
thus somewhat resembling the summer plumage of the adults, but they
may always be distinguished by the more numerous white edgings to the
dorsal and scapular feathers, by the ashy color of the hind neck,
by the absence of spots on the fore neck and chest, both of which
are tinged with isabelline-buff.
"Nestling.--Mottled with rufous and black down, the tips of which
are silvery white or sandy buff; the hind neck sandy buff, forming
a collar; the crown black, slightly mottled with rufous and dotted
with silvery white, the black extending in a line on the forehead,
which is buff, continued into a somewhat broad eyebrow; a black loral
line and a black spot on each side of the hinder crown as well as
on the ear-coverts; under surface of body whitish, with a tinge of
sandy buff on the lower throat." (Sharpe.)