SCOLOPACID^ — THE SNIPE FAMILY —ACTODROMAS. 



227 



Actodromas fuscicoUis. 



BONAPARTE'S SANDPIPER. 



Tringa fuscicoUis, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. XXXIV. 1819, 461 (based on Chorlito pestorejo pardo, Azara, 



Apunt. III. 1805, 322, Paraguay). — CouES, Birds N. W. 1874, 487. 

 Tringa Schinzii, Boxap. Synop. 1828, 249; Am. Orn. IV. 1833, 69, pi. 24, fig. 2. — Nutt. Man. 



II. 1834, 109. — Sw. & Rich. F. B. A. II. 1831, 384. —AuD. Orn. Biog. III. 1833, 529, pi. 



278 ; Synop. 1839, 236 ; B. Am. V. 1842, 275, pi. 335. 

 Tringa Bimapartci, Schleg. Rev. Grit. Ois. Eur. 1844, 89. — Cass, in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 722 



(part). — Baikd, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 533. — Coues, Key, 1872, 255 ; Check List, 1873, 



no. 421. 

 Actodromas Bonapartei, Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 617. 

 Tringa melanotics, Blas. List B. Eur. 1862, 19 (nee Vieill.). 

 Tringa dorsalis, Licht. Nomencl. 1854, 92 (fide Dresser). 

 Actodromas fuscicoUis, Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1882, no. 536. 



Hab. Eastern Province of North America, breeding in the high north ; in winter, the whole 

 of ^Middle America, South America, and the West Indies ; Falkland Islands ; occasional in 

 Europe. 



Sp. Char. Adult in summer : Above, light brownish gray, much tinged, particularly on the 

 crown, back, and inner scapulars, with light rusty buff or ochraceous, all the feathers black cen- 

 trally, these markings largest and somewhat V-shaped, or sagittate, on the scapulars, streak-like 

 elsewhere, the streaks broadest on the crown and back ; rump dusky blackish, the feathers bor- 

 dered with light gray ; upper tail-coverts pure white, in marked contrast, some of the feathers 

 having irregular sagittate, mostly concealed, spots of dusky. Tail brownish gray, the middle 

 feathers blackish, and all slightly edged with whitish. Wing-coverts and tertials brownish gray, 



lic'-hter on edges and dusky centrally, the shafts nearly black. Superciliary stripe and entire lower 

 parts pure white ; auriculars light butf, indistinctly streaked ; sides of head and neck, foreneck, 

 jugulum, and upper part of breast, streaked or dashed with dusky; sides and flanks with larger 

 irregular markings of the same. Adult in winter : Wings, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail as in 

 summer plumage ; rest of upper parts continuous brownish gray, relieved by rather indistinct 

 mesial streaks of black ; streaks on jugulum, etc., less sharply defined than in the summer plu- 

 mage. Young, first pUunage : Back and scapulars black, the feathers bordered terminally with pure 

 white, and laterally with ferruginous, those of tlie middle of the back also tipped with this color ; 

 feathers of the pileum and rump, as well as the tertials, also bordered with rusty ; wing-coverts 

 bordered with pale grayish buff. Otherwise as in the winter plumage, but breast, jugulum, etc., 

 suffused with pale fulvous. 



Total length, about 7 inches ; wing, 4.90 ; culmen, .90-1.00 ; tarsus, .95-1.00 ; middle toe, 

 .70-.75. 



Specimens from South America are exactly like northern ones, among which there is the usual 

 amount of individual variation. In midsummer the black of the back and scapulars increases in 

 relative extent, partly by the wearing away of the rusty borders to the feathers, until, in some 

 examples, the dorsal aspect is chiefly black. 



