Little Stint — Tringa Minuta
Upper parts variegated with rufous and black; throat and upper breast tinged with rufous and speckled with dark brown; under parts white; bill and feet black. Length, six inches. In winter the upper parts are ashy brown, and there is no rufous on the throat.
This diminutive sandpiper, no larger than a house-sparrow, and in appearance a miniature dunlin, is the least of its order in the British Islands. It comes to us only during the autumn and spring migrations, but in small numbers, as the British coasts lie a little outside of its main lines of travel. It makes its appearance in August, chiefly on the east side of Great Britain, and is gone by October; in May it reappears, to stay till June, when it resumes its journey northwards. Its known breeding-places are in Northern Norway and Siberia, north of the arctic circle. The eggs are four in number, of the same length as those of the song-thrush, in colour and markings like dunlins’ eggs. The note of this species is described in Yarrell as a ‘whispering, warbling trill, very different from the louder call of the dunlin;... and the call of a flock is something like the confused chirping of grasshoppers or crickets.’
Temminck’s stint (Tringa temmincki) is a visitor on migration to the coasts of Great Britain, but is less regular, and appears in smaller numbers than the little stint, which it resembles in size and colour.