362 SCHINZ'S SANDPIPER. 



Tringa alphia, and lately separated by Brehm in his work on the 

 birds of Europe, under the name of Tringa Scliinzii. It is so difficult 

 to say what is a species and what a variety in this most intricate genus, 

 that we shall not undertake to decide from a single specimen, especially 

 when, as in this case, it involves the identity of the bird in the two 

 continents. 



'■'■ Pelidna cinclus var. Above blackish brown, plumage edged with 

 cinereous or whitish ; head and neck above cinereous with dilated 

 fuscous lines ; eyebrows white ; a brown line between the eye and corner 

 of the mouth, above which the front is white; cheeks, sides of the neck 

 and throat cinereous lineated, with blackish-brown, bill short, straight, 

 black ; chin, breast, belly, vent, and inferior tail-coverts pure white, 

 plumage plumbeous at base ; scapulars and lesser wing-coverts margined 

 with white ; greater wing-coverts with a broad white tip ; primaries 

 surpassing the tip of the tail, blackish, slightly edged with whitish, 

 exterior shaft white, shafts whitish on the middle of their length ; 

 rump blackish, plumage margined at tip with cinereous tinctured with 

 rufous ; tail-coverts white, submargins black ; tail-feathers cinereous 

 margined with white, two middle ones slightly longer, black margined 

 with white ; legs blackish. Adult male. Length to tip of tail seven 

 inches. Bill seven-eighths of an inch." 



This bird was shot in November, near Engineer Cantonment ; and 

 Mr. Say thought it was probably a variety of the very changeable 

 cinclus {Tringa alpina) in its winter plumage. It is this very specimen 

 that we have had represented of its full size in the annexed figure in 

 order that naturalists may judge if we are right in the course that we 

 have chosen. Be it as it may, we are satisfied that Tringa Schimii is 

 a good species, well distinguished from Tringa alpina by its smaller 

 size, and proportionally even shorter bill. The more extensively white 

 upper tail-coverts are the best and most conspicuous mark : it is also 

 to be observed that in the summer dress the ferruginous color of the 

 upper part is paler, the black spot of the breast more restricted and 

 less pure ; and the neck more broadly streaked. Both sexes are more- 

 over perfectly alike in color, which is never the case in the alpina in 

 spring dress. It belongs to the subgenus Tringa, of which we have 

 already treated, and it is common to both continents. In America it 

 is found from far beyond the Mississippi to the Atlantic shores, and is 

 rather common in autumn on the coasts of New Jersey, either in flocks 

 by themselves, or mixing in company with other Sandpipers, w th which 

 it has every habit in common. 



The specimens that we shot in New Jersey measured seven inches in 

 length and above fourteen in extent. The bill is very nearly but not 

 quite an inch long, compressed and black from the base : the crown, 

 neck above, and interscapulary region are of an ashy-brown, much 



