Mr. H. E. Dresser on the Birds of Southern Texas. 37 



Tringa WILSON!^ Nuttall. Least Sandpiper. 



Very common at Matamoras in the autumn, arriving there late 

 in July. In the early spring also I shot several near San Antonio. 



Bill brownish-black ; legs light yellowish-brown ; iris dark 

 brown. 



Ereunetes petrificatus, Illiger. Semipalmated Sandpiper. 



Not uncommon near Matamoras, but by no means so nume- 

 rous as the last-named species. I never saw any at San Antonio. 



Bill black ; legs dark olive-brown ; iris dark. Stomach con- 

 taining small worms. 



MiCROPALAMA HiMANTOPUs (Bonapartc). Stilt-Sandpiper. 



When out shooting at the lagoon, soon after my arrival at 

 Matamoras, I shot a Sandpiper that was quite new to me ; and 

 having no work on ornithology to which I could refer, I noted 

 down a careful description in my pocket-book. Subsequently, 

 on comparing it with Mr. Cassin's account in Baird's ' Birds of 

 North America ' (which book I procured at San Antonio), I found 

 it to be the species named above. During my stay at Mata- 

 moras I shot several more Stilt-Sandpipers, meeting with them 

 far oftener (as the different kinds of birds of this family began 

 to arrive from the north), and generally finding them in company 

 with Macrorhamphus griseus. I skinned several, all of which, 

 on my return to Matamoras in 1864, I found so damaged that 

 I had to throw them away. When out Snipe-shooting on the 

 20th November, 1863, near San Antonio, I shot one of these 

 birds, and saw another, which, however, I did not succeed in 

 killing. The one I shot I preserved and now have, having com- 

 pared it with the miserable remains of those I had left at Mata- 

 moras before I threw them away. 



Bill dark greenish-black ; legs dark greyish ; iris dark brown. 



Symphemia semipalmata (Gmelin). Willet. 



Not uncommon near San Antonio during the summer. I 

 shot specimens at the Boca Grande in July and August, and 

 between Matamoras and Victoria (at King's Rancho) in Septem- 

 ber, but never saw any near San Antonio. I saw several in 

 June on Galveston Island, but shot none. One was sent to me 

 from Fort Stockton. 



