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TRINGA MINUTA. THE LITTLE SANDPIPER. 



Little Sandpiper. Tringa pusilla. Mont. Ornith. Diet. Young. 

 Becasseau echasse. Tringa rainuta. Temra. Man. d' Ornith. II. 625. 

 Minute Tringa. Tringa rainuta. Selb. Illustr. II. 147. 

 Tringa rainuta. Little Stint. Jenyns, Brit. Vert. Anim. 212. 

 Little Sandpiper. Tringa rainuta. Gould, Birds of Europe. 

 Pelidna minuta. Bonap. Comp. List, 50. 



Bill about the same length as the head, straight, slender, 

 scarcely enlarged at the end; tail doubly emarginate ; tarsus 

 ten-twelfths long ; bill and feet black. Plumage in winter 

 brownislt-grey above, each feather with a dusky streak; the 

 sides of the neck paler, of its lower part tinged with brown ; 

 the throat, fore neck, breast, and abdomen, white ; the middle 

 tail-coverts dusky, the lateral white ; the tail-feathers ash-grey 

 edged ivith ivhite, the tivo middle greyish-brown. In summer 

 the upper parts yelloicish-red, spotted with brownish-black ; 

 the throat, breast, and other lower parts ivhite ; the lower an- 

 terior and lateral parts of the neck reddish-grey streaked with 

 brown ; a dusky loral band, and a whitish streak over the eye. 

 Young with the upper parts variegated with brownish-black and 

 yellowish-red ; the forehead and cheeks brownish-white, the loral 

 space brown ; the lower part of the sides of the neck brownish- 

 grey ; the throat, fore-neck, and other lower parts ivhite. 



This species, which, in form and proportions closely re- 

 sembles Tringa Cinclus and Tringa Schinzii, although much 

 inferior in size, and somewhat more slender, I have not met 

 with alive, nor even in the entire state after being killed. 

 The following descriptions are therefore necessarily taken 

 from prepared skins. 



Male in Winter. — The body, neck, and head are of the 

 usual form. The bill of the same length as the head, straight, 

 slender, rather higher than broad at the base, tapering, 



