250 



PRJi:COCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



Tnjnga Iridadyla, Pall. Zoog. Kosso-As. II. 1826, 198. 

 Calidris tringoides, Yieill. Gal. Ois. II. 1834, 95, pi. 234. 

 Calidris aniericana, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. 1831, 695. 

 " Calidris nigcllus, Vieill." 



Hab. Nearly cosmopolitan, but breeding only in the Arctic and Subarctic districts, in America 

 micrrating south to Patagonia and Chili. Chiefly littoral, Ijut frequenting also the larger inland 

 waters. 



Sp. Char. No hind toe ; front toes moderate or rather long, flattened underneath, distinctly 

 margined with a membrane. Bill straight, rather thick ; ridge of upper mandible flattened ; nasal 

 groove deep and nearly as long as tlie uj^per mandible, not so distinct in the lower ; both mandi- 

 bles widened and flattened at the tip ; aperture of the nostril large and covered with a membrane. 

 Wing long ; tail short, with the middle feathers longest ; under coverts long as the tail ; legs mod- 

 erate ; lower third of the tibia naked. Lower parts white, immaculate on the belly, sides, flanks. 



axillars, anal region, and crissura ; greater wing-coverts broadly tipped with white, and inner 

 primaries white at base of outer webs. Adult in summer : Above, light rufous, broken by large 

 spots of black, the feathers mostly tipped with whitish. Head, neck, throat, and jugulum, pale 

 cinnamon-rufous, speckled below and streaked iibove with blackish. Adult in ic inter : Above, 

 very pale pearl-gray (the lesser wing-coverts darker anteriorly), relieved only by faint darker 

 shaft-streaks of the feathers. Throat and juguluni immacuhite pure white. Adult in spring: 

 Above, light grayisli, with large black spots (streaks on the crown), here and there mixed with 

 rufous; jugulum speckled with dusky on a white ground. Young: Above, pale gray, spotted 

 with black and whitish, the latter on tips of the feathers ; juguluni immaculate white, faintly 

 tinged with dull buff. "Bill and feet black ; iris brown" (Audubon). 



Total length, about T.To-S.oo inches; wing, 4.70-5.00; culmen, .95-1.00 ; tarsus, .90-1.05 ; 

 middle toe, .55-.60. 



In the universality of its distribution the Sanderling is probably not surpassed 

 by any known species. It is found on both the Atlantic and Pacific coast of iSTorth 

 America and in the interior. It wanders in fall and winter to the West Indies, 

 Mexico, Central, and over the greater portion of South, America. It is in like man- 

 ner found in the breeding-season scattered over Northern Europe and Asia, and from 

 August to June it occurs at various periods in Central and Southern Asia and 

 Europe, Africa to Natal, Japan, and on several of the islands lying to the south 

 and southeast of Asia. 



This is a bird of the highest Arctic distribution, having been taken by Captain 

 Hall's party, in the " Polaris " Expedition, on the west coast of Greenland. It was 

 also observed by Mr. Eeilden, of the Expedition of 1875-1876, in Grinnell Land on 

 the 5th of June, 1876, flying in company with Knots and Turnstones ; at this date it 

 was feeding, like the other Waders, on the buds of Saxifraga op-posltifolia. It was by 

 no means abundant along the coast of that region, but Mr. Feilden observed several 



