276 BULLETIN 50_, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



PISOBIA ACUMINATA (Horsfield). 



SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER. 



Adults in summer (sexes alike).— Pileum rufescent brown (saviil 

 brown or mikado brown) broadly streaked with black ; nape and hind- 

 neck buff}'^, rather broadly streaked with dusky; scapulars and inter- 

 scapulars dull black or brownish black medially, broadly edged with 

 wood brown, some of the feathers (especially posterior scapulars) with 

 the broad edgings more rufescent and passing into whitish terminally; 

 wing-coverts deep grayish brown with much paler margins and with 

 indistinct shaft-streaks of dusky, the greater coverts narrowly tipped, 

 or terminally margined, with dull white; secondaries deep graj'ish 

 brown narrowly edged with grayish white, the proximal ones (next 

 to tertials) broadly edged distally with white; tertials dusky mar- 

 gined with pale wood brown and brownish white; primary coverts 

 dusky, the proximal ones tipped with white; primaries deep grayish 

 brown, narrowly and rather indistinctly edged with paler, their 

 shafts light grayish brown passing into white post-medially or sub- 

 termmally; rump and upper tail-coverts dark sooty brown or black- 

 ish brown, the feathers more or less distinctly margined (narrowly) 

 with wood brownish, the middle pair of rectrices similar but margined 

 with more rufescent brown or cinnamomeous; rest of tail grayish 

 brown or brownish gray, the rectrices narrowly margined terminally 

 with white; side of head, including superciliary stripe, white streaked 

 with dusky, the sides of neck similar but with heavier streaks; auric- 

 ular region pale brownish, narrowly streaked with dusky; chin and 

 throat white, the latter with small spots or flecks of dusky; foreneck, 

 chest, and sides of breast pale cinnamon-buff or vinaccous-buff, irreg- 

 ularly spotted, barred, and streaked with dusky, the feathers tipped 

 with whitish; rest of under parts white, the upper breast, sides, and 

 flanks with V-shaped markings of grayish brown, the under tail- 

 coverts with central sagittate spots or streaks of dusky; axillars and , 

 most of under wing-coverts immaculate white; bill blackish termi- 

 nally, brownish (yellowish in life?) basally; iris brown; legs and feet 

 dusky (greenish yellow in life?). 



Winter plumage. — Similar to summer adults but less rufescent above 

 (the general color grayish brown streaked and striped with blackish, 

 the pileum, however, distinctly rufescent or cinnamomeous), the chest 

 pale grayish buff, indistinctly streaked (not spotted) with dusky. 



Young. — Pileum bright rusty brown (mikado brown or sayal 

 brown) sharply streaked with black and bounded laterally by a broad 

 superciliary stripe of white finely streaked with dusky; scapulars and 

 interscapulars rusty ochraceous or ocliraceous-cinnamon, black medi- 

 ally or centrally, the outermost series of each margined terminally 

 with white; upper tail-coverts and feathers of rump margined termi- | 

 nally with rusty; foreneck, chest, upper breast, and anterior portion 



