48 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



scapulars, streak-like elsewhere, the streaks broadest on the crown and back; rump dusky 

 blackish, the feathers bordered with light gray; upper tail-coverts pure white, in marked 

 contrast, some of the feathers having irregular sagittate, mostly concealed, spots of dusky. 

 Tail brownish gray, the middle feathers blackish, and all slightly edged with whitish. 

 Wing-coverts and tertials brownish gray, lighter on edges and dusky centrally, the shafts 

 nearly black., Superciliary stripe and entire lower parts pure white; auriculars light buff, 

 indistinctly streaked: sides of head and neck, foreneck, jugulum, and upper part of breast, 

 streaked or dashed with dusky ; sides and flanks with larger irregular markings of the 

 same. Adult in winter: Wings, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail as in summer plumage ; 

 rest of upper parts continuous brownish gray, relieved by rather indistinct mesial stieaks 

 of black ; streaks on jugulum, etc., less sharply defined than in the summer plumage. 

 Young, first plumage : Back and scapulars black, the feathers bordered terminally with 

 pure white, and laterally with ferruginous, those of the middle of the back also tipped with 

 this color; feathers of the pileum and rump, as well as the tertials, also' bordered with 

 rusty ; wing-coverts bordered with pale grayish buff. Otherwise as in the winter plumage, 

 but breast, jugulum, etc., suffused with pale fulvous. 



Total length, about 7 inches; wing, 4.90; culmen, .90-1.00; middle toe, .70-75. 



Specimens from South America are exactly like northern ones, 

 among which there is the usual amount of individual variation. 

 In midsummer the black of the back and scapulars increases in 

 relative extent, partly by the wearing away of the rusty borders 

 to the feathers, until, in some examples, the dorsal aspect is 

 chiefly black. 



The habits of this species are, so far as known, so much like 

 those of the Pectoral Sandpiper that we shall not enter into 

 detail concerning them. It is comparatively a rare species in 

 Illinois, Mr. Nelson referring to it as follows: "Rather uncom- 

 mon migrant. Dr. Hoy writes 'that it was formerly abundant 

 during the migrations, but is now rare,' (at Racine). June 9th, 

 1876, 1 obtained one specimen and saw quite a number of others 

 upon the Lake shore near Waukegan. Mr. R. P. Clarke informs 

 me that he has taken it late in autumn upon the Lake shore 

 near Chicago." 



Tringa bairdii (Coues). 



BAIRD'S SANDPIPER. 



Actodromas bairdii Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1861, 194; Check List, 2d ed. 1882^ 

 No. 615— Ridgw. Norn. Am. B. 1881, No. 537— B. B. & B. Water B. N. Am. i, 1884, 230. 

 Tringa bairdii Scl. P. Z. S. 1867, 332 (Chili).— Coues, Key, 1872, 255; Check List, 1874, No. 

 419; Birds N. W. 1874, 484— A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. 241— Ridgw. Man. N. Am. B. 

 1887, 157. 

 Hab. America in general, but chiefly the interior of the northern and western portion 

 of the southern continent ; ranging from Alaska to Chili and Argentine Republic ; rare in the 

 Eastern Province, and not yet recorded from the Pacific coast of the United States; acci- 

 dental in southern Africa. 



