FAMILY SCOLOPACIDAE 42$ 



Description. — Length, 200-220 mm. In winter dress gray above, 

 with a grayish wash on the breast. 



In the brighter breeding plumage the lower breast and abdomen 

 are black. 



Measurements (from Ridgway, I.e., pp. 262-263). — Males, wing 

 108.5-125.5 (115.9), tail 42-57 (52), culmen 31-41 (35.6), tarsus 

 23-28 (25.2) mm. 



Females, wing 114-125 (117.4), tail 44.5-56 (53), culmen 34-42 

 (38.3), tarsus 25-27 (26) mm. 



Migrant from the north. Rare ; status uncertain. 



In the New World the dunlin nests in Alaska, northern Canada, 

 and Greenland and winters regularly along the coasts from southeast- 

 ern Alaska to Sonora and from Massachusetts to Florida and Texas. 

 There is one record for Momotombo, western Nicaragua (Sharpe, 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. 24, 1896, p. 611). I have seen sandpipers 

 on three occasions that I identified as this species, one December 3 

 and another December 28, 1955, at Panama Viejo, and five at the 

 mouth of the Rio Chico, March 5, 1956. Since Panama is so far be- 

 yond the recorded range I include these as not wholly definite, pend- 

 ing the capture of specimens. 



MICROPALAMA HIMANTOPUS (Bonaparte) : Stilt Sandpiper; 

 Chorlito Patilargo 



Tringa himantopus Bonaparte, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, vol. 2, 1826, 

 p. 157. (Long Branch, New Jersey.) 



Slender, larger than the spotted sandpiper, with very long yellowish- 

 green legs and slender, straight bill that is decidedly longer than the 

 head. 



Description. — Length, 195 to 210 mm. Breeding dress, crown 

 dusky black, edged with grayish white and buffy white ; hindneck 

 streaked with dusky and grayish white; a light superciliary some- 

 what streaked with dusky ; back and scapulars mixed black and gray, 

 with scattered edgings of buff; rump and upper tail coverts white 

 barred with black; primaries black; wing coverts and secondaries 

 dark gray, the latter tipped with white; tail gray, with white base 

 and white tips on outer pairs ; underneath white, with throat plain, 

 foreneck and upper breast streaked, and lower breast, abdomen, and 

 under tail coverts evenly barred with dusky ; side of the head behind 

 the eye cinnamon-rufous. 



Winter dress, upper surface plain brownish gray ; superciliary stripe 

 white; under parts white, with the lower foreneck, sides of neck, upper 



