68 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



throat, largest on the abdomen. Primaries plain dusky; tail dark ashy, the outer feathers 

 with dusky and white transverse spots on their terminal portion; axillars immaculate 

 white. Young: Above, greenish ashy, the wings with narrow transverse bars of black and 

 buffy most numerous on the coverts. Beneath, white, without any spots, and with 

 an ashy suffusion across the jugulum. Downy chick: Above, yellowish gray, with a nar- 

 row black dorsal stripe from the bill to the tail; a narrow black line through the eye. Be- 

 neath, dull white. 



Total length, about 7.75 inches; extent, 13.00-14.00; wing, 4.05-1.30; culmen, .90-1.00; tarsus 

 .90-1.05; middle toe, .70.-80. Mandib'e and edge of the maxilla pale wax-yellow (in life); rest 

 of bill black; iris dark brown; tarsi and toes pale grayish olive. 



This is probably the most generally distributed species of the 

 family, since it is to be found along the banks of nearly every 

 stream, large or small, in the land. 



In Cook county, the Spotted Sandpiper is, according to Mr. 

 Nelson, a "very common summer resident." Mr. Nelson's note 

 concerning it continues as follows: "Arrives in April and departs 

 late in autumn. Breeds in abundance among the small sand 

 hills, along the Lake shore. Near Waukegan, the first of June, 

 1876, I saw Mr. T. H. Douglas secure over two dozen of their 

 eggs in considerably less than an hour. The nests were generally 

 placed under a small shrub or in a thin tuft of grass and the 

 eggs could be seen several yards away." 



Genus TRYNGITES Cabanis. 



Tryngites Cab. Journ. fiir. Orn. 1856, 418. Type, Tringa rufescens Vieill.,= 2'. subru- 

 ficollis Vieill. 

 Char. Upper mandible grooved to about the terminal fourth; the lower not quite so 

 far. Culmen and gonys about straight. Mouth deeply cleft more than half way to the eye ; 

 the culmen about two thirds the commissure. Culmen much shorter than the head, and 

 about equal to middle toe without claw. Tarsus about one and one sixth as long as middle 

 toe and claw. Bare part of tibia decidedly shorter than middle toe without claw. Toes 

 cleft to the base, with only a very rudimentary web. Upper jaw feathered to the nostrils; 

 the side of the lower, and beneath, feathered much farther, or to the end of the nostrils ; the 

 interspace of the rami entirely filled. Tail somewhat graduated, not half the wing. 



Tryngites subruficollis (Vieill.) 



BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



Tringa subruficollis Vieill. Nouv. Diet, xxxiv, 1819, 465. 

 Tryngites subruficollis Bidgw. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. viii, 1885, 356; Man. N. Am. B. 



1887, 169-A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. 262. 

 Tringa rufescens Vieill. Nouv. Diet, xxxiv, 1819, 470 (Louisiana).— Nutt. Man. ii, 1834, 



113— Aud. Orn. Biog. iii, 1835, 451, pi. 265; Synop. 1S39, 235; B. Am. v, 1842, 264, pi. 271. 

 Tryngites rufescens Caban. J. f. O. 1856, 418 (Cuba).— Cass, in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 



739.— Baikd, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, No. 546— Coues, Key, 1872, 260; Check List, 1873, No. 



439; 2d ed. 1882, No. 641; B. N. W. 1874, 506— Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 556.— B. 



B. & R. Water B. N. Am. i, 1884, 305. 

 Actidurus ncevius Heekm. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. vii, 1854, 178; Pacific R. R. Rep. x, 



pt. vi, 1859, 20, pi. 6 (Texas). 



