446 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
the eye ashy-white; throat, abdomen, under wing coverts, axillary feathers, and 
under tail coverts, white; breast and neck before ashy-white; all the feathers darker 
at base, and with partially concealed lanceolate or pointed spots of brownish-black ; 
quills. brownish-black; shaft of first primary white, of others brown; secondaries 
tipped and edged with white; tertiaries edged with dull reddish-yellow; bill and 
feet dark greenish-black; iris dark-hazel. 
Total length, about nine inches; wing, five and a quarter; tail, two and a half; 
bill to gape, one and one-eighth; tarsus, one inch. 
Hab. — The entire coasts of North America; South America; Europe. 
This well-known species is pretty abundantly distributed 
along our coast in the spring and autumn migrations, when 
it appears in small flocks, in May, in the former seasons, 
and in August and September in the latter. It has all the 
habits of the other Sandpipers, but is more often seen in 
the marshes and meadows, particularly in the autumn, than 
the others, where it eagerly pursues the various insects’ 
which are found there, particularly the grasshoppers and 
crickets, that furnish food for so many of our passing birds. 
This species is best known to our gunners by the name of 
the Grass-bird. It is a favorite with them because of its 
fine flavor on the table; and it is found in considerable 
abundance in our markets, where it meets a ready sale at a 
very remunerative price. 
TRINGA BONAPARTII. — Schlegel. 
Bonaparte’s Sandpiper. 
Tringa Schinzii, Nuttall. Man., II: 109. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 529, 
Jb., Birds Amer., V. (1842) 275. 
Tringa Bonapartii, Schlegel. Rev. Crit. Ois. Eur., (1844) 89. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Smaller; bill slightly arched towards the tip, which is somewhat enlarged and 
flattened, about the length of the head; grooves in both mandibles long and nar- 
row; wings long; secondary quills obliquely incised at the ends; tail rather longer 
than usual in this group, with the feathers broad; legs rather long and slender; toes 
free at base; hind toe very small; upper parts light ashy-brown; darker on the 
rump; nearly all the feathers with ovate or wide lanceolate central spots of brownish- 
black, and many of them edged with bright yellowish-red; upper tail coverts white; 
under parts white, with numerous small spots of dark-brown on the neck before, 
breast, and sides, somewhat disposed to form transverse bands on the last; quills 
brownish-black, darker at the tips; shaft of outer primary white, of others light- 
brown; middle feathers of tail brownish-black; outer feathers lighter, and edged 
