SCOLOPACID.E — THE SNIPE FAMILY. G5 



and spotted and barred on the back, etc., with blackish; beneath, white, tinged with ashy 

 on foreneck and with buff along sides, the former, with jugulum, spotted with dusky, and 

 the latter barred with the same; upper tail-coverts white; tail ashy, more or less distinctly 

 mol tied transversely with a deeper shade of the same; wing-coverts plain ash-gray ; axil- 

 lars and lining: of wing plain sooty'black. Winter plumage: Above, plain ash-gray ; beneath, 

 immaculate dull white, the foreneck shaded with grayish. Young: Above, lnownish gray, 

 the feathers margined with pale ochraceous; sides much tinged with the same, and finely 

 mottled transversely with grayish. Bill black; legs and feet grayish. In life, "liill light 

 blue, dusky toward end; iris brown ; feet light blue, claws black." (Audubon.) 



Total length, about 15.00-17.00 inches; extent, 25.00-30.00 ; wing, 8.00-9.00; culmen, 2.30-2.60; 

 tarsus, 2.40-2.85; middle toe, 1.35-1.40. 



"The Willet," says Dr. Brewer, "is one of the most extensively 

 distributed of North American birds. It is not only found along 

 the entire Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, and 

 along* the entire Gulf coast, but is equally abundant on the 

 Pacific and through nearly all the marshy regions of the in- 

 terior; it also occurs throughout Central and South America 

 as far south as the Pampas, where it breeds in large numbers." 



"Mr. Nelson refers to this species as being a rare summer resi- 

 dent in the marshes and on the wet prairies of northwestern 

 Illinois, where it arrives the last of April, leaving by the first 

 of October. The same writer afterward found it abundant on 

 the shores of Salt Lake, in company with Avocets, where its 

 clamor made it a perfect nuisance to the sportsman. Captain 

 Bendire also noticed it as an abundant summer residenl in 

 southeastern Oregon, where he procured several sets of its eggs, 

 which began to be laid about the 10th of May. These birds 

 were quite as abundant in the higher mountain valleys, .11 an 

 altitude of six thousand feet, as they were in the lower regions, 

 apparently frequenting all marshy localities. Dr. Bryanl found 

 this to be an abundant species in the Bahamas, where it was 

 also resident, breeding in all suitable Localities, and being 

 known as the 'Duck Si»i ] >< -. ' * ' (BREWER.) 



Genus BARTRAMIA Lesson. 



Bartramia Lesson. Traite d'Orn. lfcSl, 663. Type, /•'. ' ,.=Tringa 



oauda Beohst. 

 Oh \i:. Upper mandible grooved laterally to within the terminal fourth, tho lower aot 



quit! 10 far. Oulmei noave to near the tip, where it is slightly deourved;gonys Btraight. 



Month deeply oleft, olmosl as far back oa the anterior eanthua of the eye. The eulmi 



a I ii >ut two thirds Mi unissure, shorter than the head <>r tarsu9,andaboa1 equal to middle 



toe, without olaw. Feathers extending much farther forward on the upper jaw than "ii the 

 lower, although those of ohin reaoh nearly to end of nostrils. Tarsus one and "tie half 

 middle toe and olaw; the bare part of tibia nol Quite equal to the mlddl 



outer toe united at base a far as first it; web of inner I gradu 



more than half the wings. 



—9 



