NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 199 



comparison unnecessary. The differences between the present species and the 

 A. Cooperi will be pointed out under the head of the latter. 



In addition to the characters given on the diagnosis, the following remarks 

 may serve to illustrate the peculiarities of the present species, with its varia- 

 tions. While the difference in size between the largest and smallest specimens 

 before me is very considerable, amounting to over half an inch in the wing, and 

 more than an inch in entire length, the bill and feet vary but little in length 

 and proportion. The difference in the length of the bill is but about one-tenth 

 of an inch, and of the tarsus and toes it is less. The three are about equal, and 

 from 1-10 to 1-20 of an inch in length. The proportions of the quills seem con- 

 stant, the first being decidedly longest. The tertials vary quite remarkably in 

 length, in some specimens nearly equalling the longest primary, and in others 

 being over an inch and a half shorter ; they usually, however, reach to within 

 less than an inch of the tips of the wings. The feathers, which encroach on the 

 side of the lower mandible but little beyond those on the upper, present an acute 

 angle, their upper outline being parallel with the commissure, and the lower 

 sloping rapidly backward. The crown is much darker than the hind neck, the 

 transition being marked and abrupt. The upper parts vary greatly in the 

 color of the margins of the feathers, it being of every intermediate shade from 

 a very dull ashy with scarcely a tinge ef reddish to very bright chestnut. In 

 the latter case, the tips of the feathers are nearly pure white ; but this pattern 

 of coloration is mostly confined to the young bird, which, as is also the case 

 with A. miimtilla, is of actually brighter colors than when adult. An evidence 

 of immaturity is always to be seen in the light ferruginous edgings of the 

 lesser wing coverts, which in the adults are merely light ash}'. The saiue fea- 

 ture characterizes the young mhrutilla, and is also found in the European A. 

 minula. While the pectoral wash is always deep and decided, its color varies 

 considerably. In the adults it is usually a very dark ash, while in the young 

 of the year it has a light ochrcous or buff tinge. In the former it fades gradually 

 into the white of the chin, while on the latter it forms a well defined more or 

 less triangular white patch. The line of demarcation on the breast is always 

 sharply defined. In some specimens there are dusky shaft lines along the 

 sides quite to the vent. This species also sometimes exhibits the peculiar 

 dusky state of plumage found in the minutilla and Bairdii. 



Contrary to the general rule among the Sandpipers, there has been very little 

 confusion among authors with regard to this species, and its synonomy is de- 

 finite and well ascertained. The first notice of it by an American author was 

 in 1823, in Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains, where it was named 

 Felidna j^ectoralis, by Say. This specific appellation, certainly a most appro- 

 priate one, is that which has been in general use among authors, the bird lieing 

 as usual referred to both Pelidna and Tringa. It is, however, very different from 

 either, and is in every essential a true Actodromas. " Le tringa macule," 

 Tringa maculata of Vieillot, (1819.) unquestionably refers to the present species, 

 and the name has therefore priority over pectoralis. ijichtenstein, in 1823, 

 named the species T. campestris, which of course is also superseded hy maculata 

 Vieill. Degland, in 1849, presented the bird as Tringa dominiccnsis, the name 

 being derived from the T. cinclus dominiccnsis of Brisson, (1760.) This author, 

 however, was no binomalist, and has hence no claim to bestow names in such 

 a system. 



Actodromas (Heteropygia) Bonapartei (Schl.) Cass. — Bonaparte's Sand- 

 piper. 

 ? Scolopax pusilla, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 1788, i. 663. 

 Pelidna cinclus, var. Say, Long's Exped. 1823, i. 172. 

 Tringa Schinzii, " Brehm." Bonaparte, Syn. 1828, (rec Brehm. quae T. alpina, 



var.? fide Gen. Rep.) Swainson, F. B. A. 1831, ii. 384. Bonaparte, Am. 



Orn. 1833, iv. 69. Nuttall, Manual, 1834, ii. 109. Audubon, Orn. Biog. 



1861.] 



