PIGMY SANDPIPER. 119 



noMY SANDPIPER 



(Tringamimtta, *• Leisler, Nachtr zu Bechst. Naturg. Deul. Heft, 

 i. p. 74." Te^tm. ii. p. 624. Naum. Vog. t. 21. fig. 30. [young.] 

 BoxAP. Synops. No. "254. Richardson, North. Zool. ii. p. 385.) 



Sp. Ciiaract. — Bill shorter than the head, straight ; rump blackish ; 

 the outer as well as the middle tail feathers, longer than the rest, 

 the -lateral ones dark ash, edged with white ; the tarsus longer 

 tlian the bill, about 10 lines. — Summer plumage blackish, varied 

 with rufous, beneath, except the breast, white. Winter dress ci- 

 nereous, below principally white. 



Tkis is another ambiguous species, scarcely distinguish- 

 able from the preceding and following, but much more ex- 

 tensively dispersed over the world: and, though in the breed- 

 ing season immured in the desolate regions of the north, at 

 the early approach of winter, the pigmy bands, leaving the 

 arctic, wilderness, are now seen wandering along the borders 

 of rivers in Germany, France, Italy, Holland, and Switzer- 

 land, (being common on the lake of Geneva,) and extending 

 their periodical voyages beyond Europe, have been killed even 

 in Bengal in India. Though rare, they are not less widely 

 migratory on the present continent, appearing in the autumn 

 in abundance, on the extensive marine flats at the estuaries 

 of Nelson's and Hayes' rivers, in the distant fur countries ; 

 afterwards visiting Nova Scotia, and usually passing at once 

 beyond the limits of the Union, they reappear, according to 

 V.eillot, in the islands of the Antilles, spreading themselveSj 

 in, all probability, with the other similar species, throughout 

 Mexico, and along the coasts of all the warmer parts of 

 America. Their actual breeding places, are, however, yet. 

 nnknown ; but their food, as usual, is very small worms, and 

 fluviatile and marsh insects, which they commonly assemble 

 to collect at the recess of the tides. 



