8io 



SA NDPEEP—SA ND PIPER 



or marbled with darker shades, the markings being of two kinds, 

 one superficial and the other more deeply seated in the shell. The 

 young are hatched fully clothed in down (P. Z. S. 1866, pi. ix. fig. 

 2), and though not very active would appear to be capable of 

 locomotion soon after birth. Morphologically generalized as the 

 Sand-Grouse undoubtedly are, no one can contest the extreme 

 specialization of many of their features, and thus they form a very 

 instructive group. The remains of an extinct species of Pterodes, 

 P. sejmltus, intermediate apparently betAveen P. alchata, and P. 

 gutturalis, have lieen recognized in the Miocene caves of the Allier 

 by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards (Ois. foss. France, -p. 294, j^l. clxi. figs. 

 1-9) ; and, in addition to the other authorities on this very interesf> 

 ing group of birds already cited, reference may be made to Mr. 

 Elliot's "Study" of the Family {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, pp. 233-264) 

 and Dr. Gadow, " On certain points iu the Anatomy of literacies " 

 {op. cit. 1882, pp. 312-332). 



SAXDPEEP, used in America for Sandpiper. 



SANDPIPER (Germ. Sandpfeifer), according to Willughby in 

 1676 the name given by Yorkshiremen to the bird now most 

 popularly known in England as the " Summer-Snipe," — the Tringa 

 hypoleucos of Linnteus and the Totanus, Actitis or Tringoides hypoleucus 

 of later -wTiters, — and probably even in AYillughby's time of 

 much wider signification, as for more than a century it has 

 certainly been applied to nearly all the smaller kinds of the group 

 termed by modern ornithologists LiMicoL/E which are not Plovers 

 or Snipes, but may be said to be intermediate between them. 

 Placed by most systematists in the Family Scolopacidse, the birds 

 commonly called Sandpipers seem to form three sections, which 

 have been often regarded as subfamilies — Totaninx., Tringinai and 



Plialaropodinai, the last of Avhich has 

 already been treated (Phalarope), and 

 in some classifications takes the higher 

 rank of a Family — Phalaropodidm. 

 The distinctions between Totaninx 

 and Tringinx, though believed to be 

 real, are not easily drawn, and space 

 is wanting here to describe them 

 minutely. Both of these groups have 

 been the sport of nomenclators and 

 systematists, so that a vast mass of 

 synonymy, puzzling to iinravel, and 

 many superfluous genera have been 

 introduced. The most obvious dis- 

 tinctions may be said to lie in the form of the tip of the bill (with 

 which is associated a less or greater development of the sensitive nerves 



Tringa. (After Swaiiison.) 



