812 



SYSTEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. — LIMICOLM. 



Sandpipers, especially small species of Actodromas. Toes entirely free ; hind toe extremely 

 small ; middle toe and claw a little shorter than tarsus. One species. (See Harting, Ibis, 

 1869, pp. 426-484; figured also in Newton's Diet. 1894, p. 813.) 



E. pygmae'us. (Lat. pygmceus, dwarf. Figs. 568, 569.) Spoon-billed Sandpiper. 

 Spathebill. Adult 9; ill breeding plumage: General appearance of a Stint (as Actodromas 

 minutilla, for example), and size little greater. Coloration of upper parts almost exactly as in 



the species just named, the feathers being black, 

 with indented light chestnut-red edgings, and 

 mostly grayish-white tips; crown simply streaked 

 with reddish and black. Under parts white ; 

 wliole throat, breast, and sides of neck overlaid 

 with bright chestnut (as in a highly plumaged 

 Sauderling) ; breast behind this colored area, and 

 sides of body, spotted with dusky. Primaries 

 plain dusky, with blackish outer webs and ends, and mostly white shafts; secondaries mostly 

 white from the base; greater coverts white-tipped. Bill and feet black. Length about 

 6.00; wing 3.90; tail (almost gone), probably 1.75; tarsus 0.90 ; middle toe and claw 0.80; bill 

 0.90, the spoon 0.45 wide; this singular instrument probably acting as a sifter or strainer rather 

 than as a shovel, in dabbling in soft mire. (Described from No. 92,281, Mus. Smiths. Inst., 

 Plover Bay, E. Siberia, June 26, 1881, E. W. Nelson, figured in colors in Nelson's Birds of 



Fig. 568. — Spoon-billed Sandpiper 

 bohm's Charadriidae.) 



(From See- 



^,,;~i;-\V' 





Fig. 5G9. — Spoon-bill Sandpiper. (From " Nortli American Shore Birds," by D. G, Elliot.) 



Bering Sea, etc., ''Voyage of the Corwin," Washington, 4to, 1883, pi. opp. p. 87; see also 

 Nelson's Alaska, 1887, p. 112. Only one other specimen in this plumage was known to exist 

 in 1884, being that figured in Ibis, 1869, p. 426, pi. 12 ; see also Harting, P. Z. S. 1871, p. Ill, 

 for the original North American record of this specimen, in the Barrow collection, taken in 

 summer of 1849 by Captain Moore of the ship "Plover," on Choris Peninsula, Kotzebue 

 Sound, Alaska.) "Winter plumage: Forehead, cheeks, and entire under parts white; upper 

 parts (except forehead) dusky, the feathers margined with pale grayish. Young: Back and 

 scapulars dusky, the feathers bordered terminally with dull whitish, these borders becoming 



