SCOLOPACID.E: TATTLERS. 



829 



(§ 5. Tattlers.) 



SYMPHE'3IIA. (Gr. (rvfi(pr]ij.i, sumjjhemi, I speak with.) Semipalmate Tattlers. Bill 

 longer than liead, straight, its tip not expauded, knobbed, nor notably sensitive; grooved about 

 half its length only; cuhnen not furrowed. Gape of mouth reaching beyond base of culmen. 

 Bill much stouter than usual in Tattlers. Legs stout. Feet semipalmate, with decided web 

 between inner and middle as well as outer and middle toes. Tarsus longer than middle toe and 

 claw, scutellate before and behind. (General characters of Totanus, but bill and feet stout, 

 latter bluisli, and toes semipalmate. See fig. 49.) One North American species. 

 S. semipalma'ta. (Lat. semipalmata, half-webbed. Figs. .578, 579.) Semipalmated Tat- 

 tler. Semipalmated Snipe. Duck-sxipe. Spanish Plover. Stone Curlew. Pied- 

 AviNGED Curlew. Willet. Will-willet. Pill-willet. Pill-will-willet. Bill- 

 Willie. Humility. Adult J" 9 , hi summer: Upper parts ashy, confoundedly speckled to 

 greater or less extent 

 with blackish ; this 

 sometimes giving the 

 prevailing tone, but in 

 lighter-colored cases 

 blackish restricted to 

 an irregular central 

 field on each feather, 

 throwing out angular 

 processes and tending 

 to become transverse 

 bars. When such dark 

 fields prevail, the up- 

 jier parts become quite 

 lilackish, speckled 

 with ashy-white, like 

 Totanus melanoleucus, 

 f(ir examjile. Fur- 

 thermore, there is of- 

 ten a sliylit rufescence. 



Under parts white, sometimes with a rufous or brownish tinge, jugulum and breast spotted and 

 streaked, sides barred or arrow-headed, with brownisli-black. Axillars and lining of wing, 

 edge of wing and primary coverts, sooty-blackish. Primaries blackish, with a great space white 

 at base, partly overlaid and concealed by primary coverts, partly showing conspicuously as a 

 speculum ; shafts white along this space. Most secondaries white ; most upper tail-coverts 

 white, the shorter ones dark like rump, the longer ones barred like tail. Tail ashy, iuconi- 

 plctely barred witli blackish; lateral feathers jiale, or marbled with white. Bill dark; legs 

 blui.sh. Length about IG.OO; extent about 28.00; wing 8.00; tail 3.00; bill •-I.()0-2..")0; tarsus 

 the same or a little more; middle toe and claw |.r)7. $ 9 i" "'inter, and young: Character of 

 wing as before. Above, light ashy, nearly or quite uniform; tail corresponding with this gray 

 state ; upper tail-coverts white. Below, white, shaded with ashy on jugulum, breast, and sides. 

 Every stage occurs between the two here described. Younger birds, before the first full winter 

 ])lnniage, have buff" or tawny edgings of the grayish-brown feathers of the upper parts; and the 

 sides are mottled with buff and gray. In the down, chicks are brownish-gray marked with 

 tiusky above, the front and sides of head and all lower parts wliitish, with a dusky spot before 

 the eye and two dusky streaks behind it. Temperate North America at large, N. to r)<5° at least 

 in tlie interior, but chietlv U. S.; breeding throupliont its U. S. range, but rarely ami locally on 





Fig. 579. — WiUets. (From Lewis. ) 



