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458 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
and streams in preference to those of the seacoast, where, 
running about with great activity, it busies itself in search- 
ing for the larve of various aquatic insects, of which its 
food principally consists. Like the succeeding species, it 
has the habit of nodding its head, and tipping up its body 
and tail, which has given it the name of “ Wagtail,” or 
“Teetler.” Nuttall says that it is seen in Massachusetts 
only at the commencement of cold weather. I have fre- 
quently met with it, both on our seashores and in the 
meadows around our fresh-water ponds, through the whole 
summer. Several pairs reside through the season on the 
borders of Punkapoag Pond, in Canton, Mass.; and they 
undoubtedly breed there, although I have been unable to 
find their nest. This species remains with us until late in 
September. When flushed, it rises with a short, sharp 
‘whistle, different from that of the Spotted Sandpiper, which 
it resembles in almost every other respect. 
TRINGOIDES, Bonaparte. 
Tringoides, BONAPARTE, Saggio di una dist., ete. (1881). (Type Zringa hypo- 
leucus, L., Gray.) 
Actitis, Bore, Isis (1822), 560. Not of Illiger, Prodromus (1811). 
Upper mandible grooved to the terminal fourth; the bill tapering and rather 
acute; cleft of mouth only moderate; the culmen about five-sixths the commissure; 
feathers extending rather further on side of lower jaw than upper, the former reach- 
ing as far as the beginning of the nostrils; those of the chin to about their middle; 
bill shorter than the head, straight, equal to the tarsus, which is of the length of 
middle toe and claw; bare part of tibia half the tarsus; outer toe webbed to first 
joint; inner cleft about to the base; tail much rounded; more than half the wing. 
TRINGOIDES MACULARIUS. — Gray. 
The Spotted Sandpiper. 
Tringa macularia, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 249. Wils. Am. Orn., VII. 
(1813) 60. 
Totanus macularius, Nuttall. Man., Il. (18384) 162. Aud. Orn. Biog., IV. 
(1838) 81. Jb., Birds Am., V. (1842) 303. 
Tringoides macularius, Gray, genera. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Small; bill rather longer than the head, straight, slender; long grooves in both 
mandibles; wing rather long, pointed; tail medium, rounded; legs rather long; 
