SCOLOPACID.E— THE SNIPE FAMILY. 67 



"Very common summer resident. Arrives early in April and 

 departs in September. Frequents in greatest abundance the 

 borders of marshes and half wild prairies. Quite difficult to 

 approach when.it first arrives, but during the breeding season 

 becomes perfectly reckless, and hovers over head or follows 

 through the grass within a few yards until it has escorted the 

 intruder well off its domain. The presence of a dog in the 

 vicinity of its nesting place is the signal for a general onslaught 

 by all the birds in the vicinity, which hover over the dog, and 

 with loud cries endeavor to drive it away. Being but little ap- 

 preciated as game it is seldom hunted in this vicinity. ; " 



Genus ACTITIS Llliger. 



Actitis Illiger, Prodr. 1811, p. 202. Type, by elimination, Tringa hypoleiica Linn. 

 Tr inanities Bonap. Saggio di una dist., etc.. 1831, 58. Same type. 



Char. Upper mandible grooved to the terminal fourth: the bill tapering and rather 

 acute. Cleft of mouth only moderate; the culmen about five sixths the commissure. 

 Feathers extending rather farther on side of lower jaw than upper, the former reaching as 

 far as the beginning of the nostrils; those of the chin to about their middle. Bill shorter 

 than the head, straight, eaual to the tarsus, which is of the length of middle toe and claw. 

 Bare part of tibia half the tarsus. Outer toe webbed to first joint; inner cleft nearly or 

 quite to the base. Tail much rounded, more than half the wing. 



Actitis macularia (Linn.) 



SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 

 Popular synonyms. Sand Snipe; Sand Lark; River Peet-weet or Tip-up; River Snipe. 



Tringa macularia Linn. S. N. ed. 12. i. I76f», 249.— Wn.8. Am. Orn. vii, 1813. 60, pL 59. llg. 1. 

 Totanus macularius Temm. 1815.— Nutt. Man. ii, 1834, 162.— AUD. Orn. Bi"t:. iv. 1839, M. pi, 



310; Synop.1839, 242; B. Am. v. is 12. 30S.pl.342. 

 Tringoides macularius Gray, 1849.— Cass, in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 735.— Baxbd.I 



Am. B.18.V1, No. 543.— Coues. Key, 1872, 260; Cheek List. 1873, No. 346; 2dv,|. It 



638; B.N. W. 1874, 501.— Redow. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881. 557.— B. B.& B. Water B. N. 



Am. i, 1884.301. 

 Actitia macularia Natjm. Vog. Deutsohl. vili. 1836, 34.— A. O. V. Check List, 1886, No. 



263.— Redow. Man. N. Am. B. 1887, 170. 



Hab. The whole of North and Middle America, and Sooth Amerloa as far 



occasional in Europe; no Greenland record. Br is throughout temperate North 



Amerloa. 



Bp. Chab. small, bill rather longer than the head, straight, slender; long grooves In 

 both mandibles; wing rather \<>\\k. pointed; tail medium, rounded; legs rather long; lower 

 third of the tibia naked; toes long, margined, and Rattened underneath, the outer con- 

 nected with the middle toe by a large □ ibrane, the Inner very -lightly oonnec 



middle toe. Adult: Upper parts greenish ashy, with a Borneo hat metallic or broni ed luster 

 and with numerous sagittate, Ian late, and Irregular, mo J brown- 



ish black, having the same lustre. Lino over the eye and entire under parts white, with 

 numerous circular and oval M">t^ "f brownish blaok over the whole Burfaoe, smaller on the 



