104 WADING BIRDS. 



rivers. Vagabond and wild in their habits, some of the species have 

 spread themselves over the whole world ; but in general, they seek 

 out the remotest wilds of the north in which to pass, without 

 molestation, the period of reproduction. 



Subgenus. — Tringa. (True Sandpipers.) 

 With the anterior toes all cleft to the base. 



CAPE CURLEW, or SANDPIPER. 



(Tringa subarquata, Temm. Scolopax africana, Gmel. i. p. G55. sp. 

 19. JVumenins africanus, Lath. UMoucttc de vicr, Buffon, PI. 

 Enlum, 851. a good figure in the commencing moult of winter.) 



Sp. Charact. — Bill much longer than the head, somewhat arched ; 

 rump white ; middle tail feathers longest, the lateral ones white 

 internally; tarsus shorter than the bill, 1^ inches long. — Summer 

 plumage varied with black and rufous, beneath reddish brown. 

 Winter plumage, cinereous, beneath white. 



Of this species very little is known. It frequents the 

 sea coast and the borders of lakes, and is sometimes seen 

 in the interior of the countries it frequents. Like most 

 species of the genus, it is migratory in the spring and autumn, 

 and at such times proceeds in flocks along the coast, or on 

 the borders of large rivers. They are seen in Switzerland 

 and France ; nesting sometimes in Holland upon the margins 

 of water courses, laying 4 or 5 eggs, which are yellowish, 

 witli brown spots. The food of this bird is usually small 

 insects, and worms, as well as the herbage of some of the 

 sea weeds, (Fiici.) So wide are the devious wanderings 

 of this cosmopolite pigmy, that Temminck obtained a spe- 

 cimen from Senegal, another from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 (as is also indicated by Latham's name of the Cape Cur- 

 lew,) and a third from North America. 



