SCOLOPACID.E — THE SNIPE FAMILY. 51 



Subgenus Pelidna Cuvier. 



Pelidna Cuv. Reg. Anim. 1817. 490; ed. 2, 1829, 526. Type, Tringa alpina Linn. 



Char. Bill slender, longer than the head, deep through the base, compressed, scarcely 

 or not at all expanded at the tip, and decidedly decurved terminally. Tarsus shorter than 

 the bill, longer than the middle toe. Wings reaching beyond end of tail. 



The subgenus Pelidna includes two well-known Sandpipers, botli 

 of which are common to North America and Europe, although 

 one of them, the Curlew Sandpiper, P. ferruginea, can scarcely 

 be considered as more than a straggler here. The other is repre- 

 sented in the two continents by distinguishable races. The char- 

 acters of the species and races of Pelidna are as follows: 



1. T. alpina. Upper tail-coverts dusky. Adult in summer: Belly black, other lower parts 



whitish. Winter plumage: No black beneath; above, uniform brownish gray. Young: 

 Belly and breast spotted with black. 



a. alpina. Wing, 4.30-4.75; culmen, 1.15-1.40; tarsus, .85-1.00; middle toe, .70-.75. Hab. 

 Europe, etc. 



ft. pacifica. Wing, 4.60-4.95; culmen, 1.40-1.75; tarsus, 1.00-1.15; middle toe, .7H-.75. 

 Hab. North America and Eastern Asia. 



2. T. ferruginea. Upper tail-coverts white. Adult in summer: Beneath, including belly, 



doep cinnamon- rufou . Winter plumage: Beneath, white, indistinctly streaked on 

 the jugulum; above, brownish gray. Young: Belly and breast unspofte:! Y 

 Palaearctic Region; occasional in northern and eastern North America. 



Tringa alpina pacifica (Coues). 



RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 



Popular synonyms. Stile (Plymouth Bay, Mass.); American Dunlin. 



Tringa alpina Wils. Am. Orn. vii, 1813, 25, pi. 56, fig. 2 {nee Linn.).— Sw. & Rich. P. B.-A. ii. 



1831, 383.— Nutt. Man. ii, 1831, 106.— Aud. Orn. Biog. iii. 1835, 580, pi. 290. Synop. 1839, 



234; B. Am. v, 1842,266. 

 Tringa cinclus Wils. Am. Orn. vii, 1813, 39, pi. 57, fig. 3 (nee Linn.). 

 Tringa alpina var. amerioana Cass, in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 719.— Baird, Cat. N. Am. 



B, 1859, No. 530.— Coues, Key. 1872, 256; Check List. 1874, 424; Birds N. W. 1874, 489. 

 Pelidna alpina americana Ridgw. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1881. 200; Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, 



No. 539a.— Coues. Check List, 2d ed. 1882, No. 624. 

 Pelidna pacifica Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1861, 189 (in text). 

 Tringa alpina pacifica Ridgw. in A. O. U. Check List. 1886.JNO. 243«; Man. N. Am. B. 1887. 



160. 



Pelidna alpina, (i. pacifica B. B. & R. Water B. N. Am. i, 1881, 242, 

 Hab. North America in general; breeding far northward; eastern Asia. 



Sp. Char. Adult in summer: Grown, back, scapulars, romp, and upper tail-ooverts, 



Hunt rufous, tin: crown streaked, other parts spotted with black; wing-coverts brownish 



gray, the greater broadrj tipped with whit'-. pt crown), neck, jugulum. and 



breast, grayish white, streaked with dusky; abdomen black; sides, flanks, anal region, 



tun, and lining of the wing, pure white, the Bides, flanks, and orlssum aparsely 



aked Adult and young in winter: above, entirely plain ash-gray, sometimes with 



Indistinct dusky shaft-etreaks; Indistinct Buperolliary Btripe and lower part- white. 



