834 S YS TEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. — LI MI COL J^. 



tiiiuous white on rump or upper tail-coverts. Below, white ; jiigulum and sides of neck shaded 

 with brownish and streaked with dusky ; sides, axillaries, and lining of wings regularly barred 

 with dusky. Tail beautifully and regularly barred throughout with black and white ; white 

 prevailing on outer feathers, where the dark bars may be broken, and white reduced to a 

 series of marginal spots on middle feathers. Primaries and edge of wing blackish, unmarked ; 

 secondaries Tike back, mostly unmarked, inner ones gradually gaining white spots. Bill 

 blackish; legs dull greenish (drying quite black, like many scrophulariaeeous plants). 

 Length 8.00-9.00, usually between these figures; extent 15.50-17.00; wing 4.75-5.40; tail 

 2.25; bill 1.12-1.24; tarsus 1.20-1.30: middle toe and claw 1.12-1.20. Little seasonal differ- 

 ence in adult birds ; winter plumage lighter 

 and not lustrous, less speckled and streaked. 

 Young : Above, lighter and less olivaceous 

 brownish, without gloss, the speckling less, 

 or else of a rusty tinge. Suffusion of jugulum 

 paler and more restricted. White around and 

 over eye better defined. Bill and feet ashy- 

 FiG. 583. — Solitary Sandpiper, nat. size. (Ad. nat. del. greenish. North America at large, N. to 

 ^- *^-) Alaska ; the representative of H. ochropus. 



Breeds from the Nortliern States northward, if not also through much of its U. S. range; I 

 found a pair in 1883 in the mountains of West Virginia, under circumstances which left no 

 doubt that they were settled for the summer. Winters, chiefly extralimital, in Central and 

 South America, but also in our Southern States. Common during migrations ; a shy, quiet 

 inhabitant of wet woods and meadow brooks and ditches and secluded grassy pools, rather 

 than oi marshes, with rather sedate manners, except the curious bobbing up and down of the 

 head, which is as habitual with this species as the teetering of the tail of the Tip-up. A more 

 graceful action is that of the biixl as it alights ; when the long pointed wings are lifted till their 

 tips nearly touch, and then are slowly folded. The note is a mellow and melodious whistle. 

 Authentic eggs have been long special desiderata (see CouES, B. N. W. 1874, p. 499; Brewer, 

 Bull. Nutt. Club, iii, 1878, p. 197; Coues, New England Bird Life, ii, 1883, p. 240; Bull. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 20, p. 97; RidCxW. Man. 1887, p. 106.) The single egg taken in 1878 

 in Vermont described as light drab with small round brown markings and faint purplish shell- 

 marks at greater end. 



H, s. ciQnamo'meus? (Lat. cinnamon-colored, as the spots on the back of the young are.) 

 Western Solitary Sandpiper. Young: Similar to the last; "larger, the wings grayer, 

 the light spots on the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts brownish-cinnamon instead of white 

 or bufty whitish; the sides of the head with more whitish, especially on the lores. No well- 

 defined loral stripe." Wing 5.10-5.49; tarsus 1.22-1.30; bill 1.15-1.30. Lower California. 

 Tots, cinncwiomeus Brewster, Auk, Oct. 1890, p. 377; range extended as " Pacific coa.st 

 region, eastward to the Plains," A. 0. U. Check-List, 2d ed. 1895, No. 256 a; Hel sol. cinna- 

 momeus, A. 0. U. Suppl. List, Auk, Jan. 1899, p. 105. 



ACTI'TIS. (Gr. oKTr], akte, a headland, promontory, coast-land, sea-shore, strand, with suffix 

 -iTis, denoting agency, a doer. Compare JEriialitis, of identical meaning. The grammatical 

 gender of both names is feminine. This is the genus Tringoides of all former editions of the 

 Key, as of most authors; but Tringoides Bp. 1831 is a synonym of Actitis Illtger, 1811, as 

 now restricted; type Tringa hijpoleucos Linn., the common Spotted Sandpiper of Europe, with 

 which ours is strictly congeneric.) Spotted Sandpipers. Bill straight, only about as long 

 as head or tarsus, grooved for about f its length. Tibife scarcely denuded for half length of 

 tarsus. Tarsus about as long as middle toe and claw. Outer and middle toes webbed for 

 length of their first joints ; inner cleft. Tail fully half as long as wing. Upper parts glossy, 

 under spotted on white ground ; bill and feet pale. Of small size. 



