SCOLOPACID.E THE SNIPE FAMILY. 67 



"Very common summer resident. Arrives early in April and 

 departs in September. Frequents in greatest abundance the 

 borders of marshes and half wild prairies. Quite difficult to 

 approach when it first arrives, but during the breeding season 

 becomes perfectly reckless, and hovers over head or follows 

 through the grass within a few yards until it has escorted the 

 intruder well off its domain. The presence of a dog in the 

 vicinity of its nesting place is the signal for a general onslaught 

 by all the birds in the vicinity, which hover over the dog, and 

 with loud cries endeavor to drive it away. Being but little ap- 

 preciated as game it is seldom hunted in this vicinity." 



GENUS ACTITIS ILLIGER. 



Actitis ILLIGEK, Prodr. 1811, p. 262. Type, by elimination, Tringa hypoleuca LINN. 

 Tringoides BONAP. Saggio di una dist., etc., 1831, 58. Same type. 



CHAB. Upper mandible grooved to the terminal fourth: the bill tapering and rather 

 acute. Cleft of mouth only moderate; the culmen about five sixths the commissure. 

 Feathers extending rather farther on side of lower jaw than upper, the former reaching as 

 far as the beginning of the nostrils; those of the chin to about their middle. Bill shorter 

 than the head, straight, equal to the tarsus, which is of the length of middle toe and claw. 

 Bare part of tibia half the tarsus. Outer toe webbed to first joint; inner cleft nearly or 

 quite to the base. Tail much rounded, more than half the wing. 



Actitis macularia (Linn.) 



SPOTTED SANDPIPER 

 Popular synonyms. Sand Snipe; Sand Lark: River Peet-weet or Tip-up; River Snipe. 



Tringa macularia LlNN. S. N. ed. 12, i, 176fi, 249. WILS. Am. Orn. vii, 1813, 60, pi. 59, fig. 1. 

 Totanus macularius TEMM. 1815. NUTT. Man. ii, 1834, 102. AUD. Orn. Biog. iv, 1839, 81, pi. 



310; Synop. 1839, 242; B. Am. v. 1842. 303, pi. 342. 

 Tringoides macularlus GEAY, 1849. CASS. in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 735. BAiKD.Cat. N. 



Am. B. 1859, No. 543. COUES, Key, 1872, 200; Check List, 1873, No. 346; 2d ed. 1882, No. 



638; B. N. W. 1874, 501. RIDGW. Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, 557. B. B. & B. Water B. N. 



Am. i, 1884. 301. 

 Actitis macularia NAUM. Vog. Deutschl. viii, 1836, 34. A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. 



263. RIDGW. Man. N. Am. B. 1887, 170. 



HAB. The whole of North and Middle America, and South America as far as Brazil; 

 occasional in Europe; no Greenland record. Breeds throughout temperate North 

 America. 



SP. CHAK. Small, bill rather longer than the head, straight, slender ; 'long grooves in 

 both mandibles ; wing rather long, pointed ; tail medium, rounded ; legs rather long; lower 

 third of the tibia naked ; toes long, margined, and flattened underneath, the outer con- 

 nected with the middle toe by a large membrane, the inner very slightly connected to the 

 middle toe. Adult: Upper parts greenish ashy, with a somewhat metallic or bronzed luster 

 and with numerous sagittate, lanceolate, and irregular, mostly transverse, spots of brown- 

 ish black, having the same lustre. Lino over the eye and entire under parts white, with 

 numerous circular and oval spots of brownish black over the whole surface, smaller on the 



