240 



KEY AXD DESCIilPTION 



Knot 



the summer than in the winter with black, brown, and buft". 



The young has the breast finely spotted or streaked with black- 

 ish, and the flanks 

 barred or streaked 

 with the same. The 

 knot is found on 

 m u d d y flats and 

 sandy beaches, prob- 

 ing the ground, like 

 the true snipe, for 

 its food, which con- 

 sists of crustaceans 

 and mollusks. The 

 knots bunch very 

 closely when decoyed, 



and so numbers can be killed by a single discliarge. (Robin 



Snipe.) 



Length, lOJ ; wing, OJ ; tail, 2| ; tarsus, IJ ; culmen. 1|. Nearly all 

 coasts ; breeding in the Arctic regions, and wintering from Florida to South 

 America. 



7. Purple Sandpiper (1*3;"). Tringa marlthna). — A northern 

 sandpiper, with grayish-puride to asliy head, breast, and back; 

 white throat, and whitisli, somewhat streaked belly. The ashy 

 breast is one of the most constant of its i)eculiarities. The. 

 bill is ^ inch longer than the tarsus, and the tibia is feathered 

 to the joint. It has a fondness for rocky shores, where it se- 

 cures its food from among the seaweeds attached to the stones. 



Length, 9; wing, 5 (4|-5|); tail, 2i ; tarsus, J; culmen, 1|. North- 

 ern hemisphere ; breeding in the Arctic regions, and wintering southward 

 to the Middle States and rarely to Florida. 



8. Pectoral Sandpiper (239. Tringa maculcita). — A short- 

 necked, mottled. dark-l)rown-backed, white-bellied, streaky buff- 

 breasted sandpiper, with black upper tail coverts slightly 

 tipi)ed with buff. The back has much black mixed -vWth the 

 brown and buff, the centers of the feathers being black. This 

 is an inhabitant of grassy meadows rather than beaches, and 



