4IO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



LIMNODROMUS GRISEUS (Gmelin): Short-billed Dowitcher; Agachona 



Oris Piquicorta 



Of medium size, with bill longer than the tarsus ; back and rump 

 white ; legs rather short, light greenish yellow ; tail with white and 

 dark bars of about equal width. 



Description. — Length 245 to 260 mm. Breeding plumage, upper 

 surface pinkish cinnamon with crown, hindneck, and back streaked, 

 and scapulars spotted, with black ; lesser wing coverts dark grayish 

 brown with paler margins ; middle coverts black, margined with cin- 

 namon-buff; greater coverts and secondaries grayish brown, edged 

 and tipped with white ; primaries dusky, margined with white ; lower 

 back, rump, and upper tail coverts white, with rump spotted, and 

 upper tail coverts barred, with blackish ; tail barred with white and 

 black, with the bars and interspaces about equal ; sides of head and 

 underparts pinkish cinnamon, mixed with white on breast and ab- 

 domen, and spotted with dusky, the spots becoming bars on the sides. 



Winter plumage, above gray, darker on the wing coverts, which 

 are margined lightly with white to grayish white ; foreneck, chest, and 

 sides gray, mixed somewhat with white ; throat distinctly whitish ; rest 

 of lower surface white, with sides and under tail coverts barred with 

 dusky ; lower back, rump, upper tail coverts, tail, primaries, and sec- 

 ondaries as in breeding dress. 



Shorebirds of this genus in heavy body, rather short legs, and 

 long, straight bills, in form resemble the common snipe, but this re- 

 semblance need give rise to no confusion as dowitchers live in the 

 open on sandy beaches and mud flats. And, further, they have the 

 rump and upper tail coverts white, a mark that shows prominently in 

 flight. In feeding they move about quietly, sometimes wading in water 

 nearly to their bodies, while they probe with their long bills, which 

 they may swing from side to side in avocet fashion, often with the 

 head completely immersed. Food is seized readily as the tip of the 

 maxilla may be opened for 5 to 6 millimeters (while the rest of the 

 mouth remains closed) through the operation of muscles at the base 

 of the skull on the flexible bones of the bill. The flight is swift, and 

 when in flocks the band of birds moves in close formation. When 

 tide waters are high dowitchers rest quietly on the upper levels of 

 the beaches or on rocky points. At Mandinga on one occasion I 

 found several standing on timbers beneath an old wharf when no 

 other shelter was near. I have found them in fair numbers on mud- 

 flats on the Gulf of Parita, where I have seen as many as 40 in 

 company. 



