SCOL OP A CID.E : SA NDPIPERS. 



821 



2.33; bill 1.50-J.75; tibia bare about 0.50; tarsus 1.00 or rather more; middle toe and claw 

 1.00 or rather less. Adult in summer: Above chestnut-red, each feather with a central black 

 field, and most of them tipped with whitish ; tail-feathers and wing-coverts ashy-gray ; greater 

 coverts tipped with white; quills dusky with pale shafts; secondaries mostly white, and inner 

 primaries edged with the same ; outer webs of primaries blackish, some inner ones white-edged 

 toward base. Under parts white; belly with a broad, jet-black area; chest and jugulum 

 streaked with dusky. Bill and feet black. Adult in winter: Above, plain ashy-gray, with 

 dark sliaft-lines. Below, white, jiigulum and chest with dusky streaks aud an ashy suflPusion. 

 White edgings of inner primaries very con- 

 spicuous. Young generally similar. In first 

 plumage somewhat resembling summer 

 adults, with rufous, buS"y and black above and 

 coarsely black spotted below. The suimner 

 dress is long worn ; it is assumed more or less 

 perfectly in April, and many birds come into 

 the U. S. from the North still wearing it in 

 August and September. North America and 



some of northeastern Asia, breeding only in F'o- 572. — Bill and foot of Pelidna alpina padfica, 



1 ■ 1 1 ... ] • ^- ., 1 T- o 1 ^^^- size. (Ad. nat. del. E. C.) 



high latitudes, migrating through U-.S. and 



wintering S. from California and the Gulf and S. Atlantic States, pi-eferably coastwise ; common, 

 in flocks, on beaches and elsewhere, and like otlier shore birds an object of sport to gunners, 

 who give it a great variety of names, some of them shared with other species. Eggs 4, 1.45 X 

 1.00, buff of a varying olive or brownish shade, fully spotted with rich chestnut-brown. This 

 is altogether a larger and handsomer bird, with a disproportionally longer and more curved bill 

 than the European, from which it was first separated as T. ulpina var. americana by Mr. Cassin 

 in 1858, and named Pelidna alpina americana by myself in 1861 ; it is so given in all former 

 editions of the Key. But the name americana is unluckily preoccupied by Brehm for another 

 species; wherefore the A. 0. U. adopts for this one the w&w.g pacifica, which I gave in 18G1 to 

 some of the largest and longest-billed specimens I had seen, which I thought might possihlv 

 be subspecitically diff"erent froui the rest. Tiiis has not proved to be the case, however, and 

 our common bird is now Triufja (Pelidna) alpina 2)acifica, A. 0. U. No. 243 a. 

 ANCYLOCHI'LUS. (Gr. ayKvXo;^eiXor, agkuloclieilos, having a curved bill.) CuRLEW 

 Saxdpipek.s. Bill much longer than head, slender, comprcs.sed, considerably decurved, tip 

 not expanded, rather hard. Grooves in Itoth mandibles very narrow but distinct. Wings lon^r, 

 pointed. Tail very short, nearly even. Legs long, slender; tarsus and tibia both lengthened, 

 the latter ex))osed for nearly or quite half the length of the former, which is nearly as long as 

 hill. Toes moderate, slender, slightly margined, the middle one about f the tarsus. One spe- 

 <-ies, noted for its resemblance to a miniature Curlew. (As a subgenus of Tringa, '' Ancy- 

 locheilus,^^ iu A. 0. U. Lists.) 



A. ferrusiu'eus. (Lat. ferriifjineiis, rusty-red, of the color of ferrugo, iron-rust, as the l»ird 

 is in full dress on the under parts.) Ci'rlew Sandpipeu. FERKirc.iXEoir.s Saxdpipkk. 

 I'vG.MY Curlew. Adult : Crown of head and entire upper parts lustrous greenisii- black, each 

 feather tipped and deeply indented witli bright yellowisli-red. Wing-coverts ashy-brown, each 

 frathcr with a dusky shaft-line and reddish edging. Primaries deep dusky, their shafts brown 

 at bas(! and black at tip, the central portion nearly white. I'pper tail-coverts white, witli 

 broad bars of du.sky, and tinged at tlieir extremity witli reddish. Tail light gray witli greenish 

 reflections. Sides of neck and entire under ])arts uniform deep browuish-red. Under tail- 

 coverts barred witli dusky- Axiliais and under wing-coverts white. Bill an<l lous greenisli- 

 l>lack. Young in autumn: Crown of lirad and back hrownish-bl.ick, with a slii,'ht greenish 

 lustre, each feather edged with white or leddish-ytllow. Kump plain dusky ", ujiper tail-coverts 



