178 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF 



of such peculiar characters, requires comparison with no other sandpiper. 

 Actodromas minutilla has much the same pattern of coloration, and sometimes 

 approaches it in size ; but the other differences are too great to allow of their 

 being confounded. 



The bill of this species varies most remarkably in length, the difference 

 being four-tenths of an inch ; it is always, however, quite stout. The tibia and 

 tarsus vary somewhat, but within narrow limits. The proportions of the 

 quills vary, bat the first is usually longest. The tail is very decidedly doubly 

 emarginate, the difference between the outer and next feather being nearly 

 one-tenth of an inch ; the third is the shortest. The upper tail coverts are 

 very long, as are also the tertials. The winter and immature plumage shows 

 little or none of the reddish, the feathers being mostly ashy with lighter bor- 

 ders. The young in July and August have scarcely any traces of the spots 

 beneath, being almost entirely white, with a light buff wash across the breast. 

 There is also much more white on the margins of the feathers of the upper 

 parts. 



With the exception of Tringa canutas and Ancylocheilus subarquaia, there is 

 perhaps no North American Sandpiper which has received such a variety of 

 names as the present. Fortunately, however, the proper name to be employed 

 is now pretty definitely determined. The subject of the generic appellation 

 has already been discussed under Ereunetes, and it now only remains to settle 

 the question of the specific denomination. The first notice of the species is in 

 1760, by Brisson, who, in his Ornithologia, describes and figures a Tringa cin- 

 clus Domini censis minor, which can be no other than the present bird. The 

 description applies well, and the figure plainly shows the webbing of the toes, 

 a feature entirely peculiar among the smaller Tringece. It was upon this bird 

 that Linnseus, in 1766, based his Tringa pusilla, which name being the first 

 applied to the bird in the binomial system, has priority over all others, and 

 must be employed. In 1811, at the time of the founding of the genus Ereunetes, 

 of Illiger, that author named the bird E. petrificatus. Cassin, in the General 

 Report, though admitting that T. pusilla, Linn., is really this species, does 

 not change Illigur's specific appellation, concerning which all doubt is removed 

 by the actual examination of the type specimen. Very recently, however, 

 in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, he has given the bird as 

 Ereunetes pusillus, Cass., the name by which it should be known. In 1813 

 Wilson named the bird T. semipalmata, which designation being a most appro- 

 priate one, has been in general use among modern ornithologists, though re- 

 ferred by different authors successively to Tringa, Heteropoda and Ereunetes. 

 The Pelidna Brissoni, of Lesson, who quotes T. pusilla, Linn., is probably the 

 present bird. 



The remarkable variations in size and in the depth of the bill to which this 

 bird is subject, have given rise to several nominal species. The Hemipalama 



largest and smallest of these, amounts to nearly two-tenths of an inch ; and in length of 

 bill to about four-tenths, the latter being more than half the entire length of the shorter 

 bill. The shortest bills appear fully as stout as the longest. These differences do not 

 seem to depend upon locality, being found in specimens from the same region, while 

 specimens from widely separated localities are absolutely identical. Thus, an excessively 

 short-billed bird from Maryland is identical with one from Nebraska, while very large 

 and long-billed specimens from Georgia, Utah and the Pacific coast do not differ appre- 

 ciably. Specimens, however, from the same locality, and undoubtedly of the same species, 

 exhibit much variation in size, length of bill and tarsus, amount of red or white above, 

 and character of the spots beneath ; so that without a full series of the common Atlantic 

 bird before me, and especially in the uncertainty, if two or more species be admitted, to 

 which one the name pusilla belongs, I have preferred to consider them as specifically 

 identical. Still, it would not be surprising if a careful and extended examination of a large 

 series of Ereunetes from all localities on the continent should substantiate two or even 

 three good species : Tringa semipalmata, of Wilson, Hemipalama minor, of Gundlach, and 

 Heteropoda mauri, of Bonaparte. 



[July, 



