PELIDNA AMERICANA : RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 223 



with a rich umber-brown of varying tint, and neutral 

 shell-markings, which appear over the whole surface, 

 but are largest and most massed at the greater end. 



RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 



PeLIDNA ALPINA AMERICANA iCclSS.) CoueS. 



Chars. Bill longer than head or tarsus, compressed at base, rather 

 depressed at the end, usually appreciably decurved. Length, 

 8.00-9.00; extent, 15.00; wing, 4.50-5.00; tail, 2.00-2.30; bill, 

 1. 50-1. 75 ; tibi^ bare about 0.50 ; tarsus, 1.05 ; middle toe and 

 claw, 0.95. Adult in summer : Above, chestnut-red, each feather 

 with a central black field, and most of them tipped with whitish ; 

 rump and upper tail-coverts blackish ; tail-feathers and wing- 

 coverts ashy-gray, the greater coverts tipped with white. Under 

 parts white ; the belly with a broad, jet-black area, the breast and 

 jugulum streaked with dusky. Bill and feet black. Adult in 

 winter, and young : Above, plain ashy-gray, with dark shaft- 

 lines, with or without red or black traces. Below, white, with 

 little or no trace of black on the belly ; jugulum with a few dusky 

 streaks and an ashy suffusion. 



Chiefly a spring and autumn migrant, though oc- 

 casionally observed at other seasons. It is a common 



Fig. 49. — Bill and Foot of Red-backed Sandpiper. Natural size. 



bird coastwise, in flocks on the beaches with others of 

 its tribe, but rarely found inland. Mr. C. J. Maynard 



