NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 233 



Semipalinated Sandpipers and the Ring Plovers, and in common with other 

 small species are known by the general name of " Peeps." Those that I shot 

 were not so excessively fat as the A. maculuta and Ereunetes pusillus commonly 

 are at the same season. 



Eeepnetks pusillus (Briss.) Cassin. — Semipalmated Sandpiper. " Peep." 



Tringa cincliis dominicensis minor, Brisson, Ornith. 1760, v. 222, pi. xxv. fig. 2, 



[hand dubie.] 

 Tringa pusilla, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. 1766, i. 252, fide Gen. Rep. 

 ? Tringa pusilla, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. 1819, xxxiv. 452, [ad T. cincl. dom. min. 



Briss. refert.] 

 Ereunetes petrljicatus, lUiger, Prod. 1811, 262. Cassin, Gen. Rep. 1858, 724. 

 Tringa semipaimata, Wilson, Am. Orn. 1813, vii. 131, pi. Ixiii. fig. 4 ; id. Ord. 



Ed. 1829, iii. 132, pi. ixiii. fig. 4 ; id. Brewer, Ed. 1840, 542, fig. 225 ; ibid. 



Svn. 725. Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. 1819, xxxiv. 462 ; Diet. Class d'Hist. Nat. 



1822, ii. 251. Swainson, F. B. A. 1831, ii. 381. Audubon, Orn. Biog. 



1839, V. p. 110, pi. 408 ; id. Syn. 1839, 236 ; id. Birds Amer. 1842, v. 277, 



pi. 336. Giraud, Birds L. I. 1844, 239. Newberry, P. R. R. Sarv. 1857, 



vi. 100. 

 Ereunetes semipalmatas, Cabanis, Schomburgk's Reise, iii. 758, fide Gen. Rep. 



Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. 1856, fide Gen. Rep. Cabanis, Journ. 1856, 



419, fide Gen. Rep. 

 Tringa (fTemipalania) semipaimata, Bonaparte, Obs. Wils. 1825, num. 212 ; ii. 



Speech. Comp. 1827, 62. 

 Tringa (Heteropoda) semipaimata, Nuttall, Man. Orn. 18.34, ii. 136. 

 Hemipalama semipaimata, Lambeye, Av. Cubae, 1850, 96. 

 Hemipalama minor, Lambeye, Av. Cubae, 1850, 97. 

 Heteropoda semipaimata, Bonaparte, Comp. List, 1838, 49. Dekay, N. Y. 



Fauna, 1844, 236, pi. 86, fig. 195. Gray, Genera, 1849, iiL 580. 

 ? Hetiropoda mauri, Bonaparte, Comp. List, 183S, 49. 

 Ereunetes mauri, Cabanis, Journ. 1856, 419, fide Geu. Rep. 

 Tringa brevirostris, Spix, Aves Bras. 1825, ii. 76, fide Gen. Rep. 

 ? Pelidna Brissoni, Lesson, Man. d'Ornith. 1828, ii. 277, [T. pusillum, Linn. 



citat.] 

 Ereunetes pusillus, Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. 1860, xiii. 195. Coues, Monog. 



Tring. N. A., in Pr. A. N. S. Ph. July, 1861, 177. 

 The statements made under the head of Actodromas minutilla, tending to 

 demonstrate that Tringa pusilla of Linnasus is not the bird given under that 

 name by Wilson, also prove that the name really belongs to the species now 

 under consideration. As there stated, pusilla was applied by Linnaeus in 1766 

 to the bird figured and described by Brisson, (Ornith. 1760, v. p. 222, pi. xxv. 

 fig. 2,) under the appellation of " La petite Alouette-de-mer de S. Dominque," 

 Tringa cinclus Dominicensis minor. The description applies well, and the figure 

 plainly shows the webbing of the toes, a feature which exclusively character- 

 izes this species among the smaller Sandpipers. There being no reasonable 

 doubt, therefore, of what pusilla really refers to, it must, according to the laws 

 of nomenclature, take precedence over both petrijicatus of lUiger, and semipal- 

 matas of Wilson. Cassin restores the name in the Proceedings of the Acade- 

 my of Natural Sciences, above cited, there calling the bird Ereunetes pusillus, 

 though in the General Report he retains the specific name of petrijicatus be- 

 stowed by Illiger in 1811. 



The webbed feet of this bird were very early made the grounds for generic 

 distinction from Tringa, to which they would fully entitle it, even were no 

 other characters involved. But though several genera have been proposed 

 for it, fortunately there is not the slightest difficultv as to the proper one to 

 be employed. Ileteropoda of Nuttall, (1834,) and Hemipalama of I3onaparte, 

 (1825,) must both yield to Ereunetes petrijicatus, which, according to the Gene- 



1861.J 



