820 SYSTEMA TIC SYjYOFSIS. — LIMICOL^. 



being black, with one or another or all of the lighter markings; coronal separated from dorsal 

 variegation by a grayish-white, dusky-streaked cervical interval. Lower back, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts blackish, little variegated with chestnut. Secondaries nearly all pure white, 

 a few of the outermost and innermost touched with grayish-brown near end. Primaries gray- 

 ish-brown with white shafts except at tip, fading to white on inner webs toward base ; several 

 inner ones also largely white on outer webs, and tipped with white. Central tail-feathers 

 brownish-black; next pair abruptly paler, grayish; rest white or whitish with pale gray tint. 

 Front and sides of head, superciliary line, tufts of flank-feathers, and entire under parts, white, 

 interrupted on breast with a large but not well defined nor perfectly continuous blackish area, 

 and marked on upper breast and sides with a few sharp blackish shaft-lines. A dusky auricu- 

 lar patch. Legs and bill dark. Length about 9.50-10.00; wing 4.80-5.30; tail 2.30- 

 2.50; bill 1.10-1.40! average 1.30; tarsus 0.90-1.00; middle toe and claw 1.05-L20. 

 Winter plumage as iu A. coiiesi. First plumage : Upper parts much as in adults, but rusty 

 markings in curved rather than angular lines, and much narrower; edges of wing-coverts 

 ochrey. Interior tail-feathers rusty-edged. Throat and breast more or less suffused with 

 rusty ; no black pectoral area, but jugulum, breast, and sides suffused with rusty. Chicks 

 in down (July) : Below, silvery-white ; above, rich reddish-brown, varied with white, with 

 curious little round dots, like mildew. Each such spot is as large as a pin-head, and, under 

 a lens, is seen to be tlie enlarged brushy end of a down-feather, whence several tiny bristles 

 sprout. Each such plume is white at base, then black, then white-tufted as said ; the dotted 

 areas thus correspond to the areas of black variegation, but there are, also, a black undotted 

 frontal line, loral stripes, and some other markings. These chicks are easily distinguished 

 from those of A. mariiima, but not from those of A. couesi. Prybilof or Fur Seal Islands 

 iu Bering Sea, where it breeds, N. to St. Matthew and St. Lawrence Islands; coast of Alaska 

 iu winter; common. Resembling both the foregoing, but perfectly distinct from either; larger 

 and lighter colored than A. couesi. Eggs 4, 1.50 X 1-07, otherwise like those of the fore- 

 going, laid in June ; young on wing early in August. 



PELID'NA. (Gr. ireXiBvos, pelidnos, gray, livid.) Dunlin Sandpipers. Purees. Bill 

 stout, much longer than head or tarsus, slightly decurved, tip somewhat expanded and punctu- 

 late ; grooves in both mandibles deep and distinct. Wings moderate ; inner secondaries long 

 and flowing. Tail moderate, doubly-emarginate, central feathers projecting. Legs rather 

 long ; tarsus not shorter than middle toe and claw, if anything longer. Bare portion of tibia 

 more than half the tarsus. Toes rather long, cleft to base, narrowly margined. Contains a 

 few species or subspecies, in summer reddish above, with a great black abdominal area, in 

 winter chiefly ashy above and white below. (A. 0. U. reduces to a subgenus of Tringa.) 



Analysis of Subspecies. 



Smaller: length about 8.00 ; bill, average, 1.40; tarsus little if any longer than middle toe and claw; tarsus and 

 middle toe together 1.75 alpina 



Larger : length about 8.50 ; bill, average, 1.70 ; disproportionately longer, stouter, more decurved ; tarsus decidedly 

 longer than middle toe and claw ; tarsus and middle toe together 2.00 o. pacifica 



P. alpi'na. (Lat. alpina, alpine.) European Dunlin. Purre. Differing as above said 

 from the North American species. Straggler to Greenland, Hudson's Bay, Long Island, and 

 Washington, D. C. Auk, 1886, p. 140 ; 1893, p. 78 ; but the Florida and Texas records dubi- 

 ous (Auk, 1887, p. 186, p. 219). 



P. a. pacifica. (Fig, 572.) American Dunlin. Black-bellied Sandpiper. Red- 

 backed Sandpiper. Black-heart. Red-back. Lead-back. Ox-bird. Brant-bird. 

 Brant Snipe. Crooked-billed Snipe. Fall Snipe. Winter Snipe. Simpleton. 

 Stib. liill longer than head or tarsus, compressed at base, rather depressed at end, usu- 

 ally appreciably decurved. Length 8.00-9.00; extent 15.00; wing 4.50-5.00; tail 2.00- 



