ia 
460 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
tion of size from 1.40 by 1 inch to 1.26 by .95 inch. I can 
see no marked peculiarity in any series of specimens, except- 
ing that those collected in the interior of Maine average 
a little larger than those from the seacoast. 
The flight of the Spotted Sandpiper is generally low, its 
wings being kept bent at an angle beneath its body. It has 
a peculiar note, like peet-weet, peet-weet, easily recognized. 
ACTITURUS, Bonaparte. 
Actiturus, BONAPARTE, Saggio, etc., (1831). (Type Tringa Bartramia, Wil- 
son.) 
Upper mandible grooved laterally to within the terminal fourth, the lower not 
quite so far; culmen concave to near the tip, where it is slightly decurved; gonys 
straight; mouth deeply cleft, almost as far back as the anterior canthus; the culmen 
only about two-thirds the commissure, shorter than the head or tarsus, and about 
equal to middle toe without claw; feathers extending much further forward on the 
upper jaw than on the lower, although those of chin reach nearly to end of nostrils; 
tarsus one and a half times middle toe and qlaw; the bare part of tibia not quite 
equal to the middle toe above; outer toe united at base as far as first joint; web of 
inner toe very basal; tail long, graduated, more than half the wings. 
ACTITURUS BARTRAMIUS. — Bonaparte. 
The Upland Plover; Bartram’s Sandpiper; Field Plover. 
Tringa Bartramia, Wilson. Am. Orn., VII. (1818) 68. Aud. Birds Amer., V. 
(1842) 248. 
Totanus Bartramius, Audubon. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 24. 
Tringa (Euliga) Bartramia, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 168. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Bill about as long as the head, rather wide and flattened at base, curved at the 
tip; nostril with a large membrane; nasal groove long; wing long; tail long for this 
group; legs moderate or rather long; lower half of the tibia naked; toes moderate, 
the outer and middle toe united by a membrane, inner and middle free to the base, 
hind toe small; general color of the upper parts brownish-black, with a greenish lus- 
tre, and with the feathers edged with ashy-white and yellowish, the latter especially 
on the wing coverts; lower part of the back, rump, and upper tail coverts, brownish- 
black; lateral coverts of the tail yeliowish-white, with arrow-heads and irregular 
spots of black; wide stripe over the eye, and entire under parts very pale yellowish- 
white, nearly pure-white on the abdomen; neck before with numerous longitudinal 
lines of brownish-black; breast and sides with waved and pointed transverse narrow 
bands of the same; axillary feathers and under wing coverts pure-white, with nume- 
rous nearly regular transverse narrow bands of black; quills brownish-black, with 
numerous transverse bands of white on their inner webs, very conspicuous or. the 
under surface of the wing; shaft of first primary white; middle feathers of the tail 
