LONG-LEGGED SANDPIPER. 375 



africanus, Latb.), from which it is however clearly distinguished hy its 

 still longer and semiiialmated feet, in which latter only it resembles 

 T. scmipalmata. It cannot for a moment be mistaken for any other 

 Tringa, differing widely from all, and by a complication of anomalies 

 resembling more in general garb and plumage a Totanus than a Trhtcfa. 



We are unaljle to say much of the habits of this curious Sandpiper, 

 further than that we met with it in the month of July, 1826, near a 

 small freshwater pond at Long Branch. Being there in company with 

 my friend Mr. Cooper, we observed a flock flying about, at which I 

 fired, and killed the one here represented. On first picking it up, I 

 mistook it for a time for T. suharquata, a species very rare in the 

 United States, though one of the most common in Italy, but was unde- 

 ceived upon observing the web between the toes. This is the only 

 specimen I have ever seen, though the gentleman just mentioned informs 

 me that he has recently procured another that was shot in the month 

 of May on the south shore of Long Island. 



This new species is nearly nine and a half inches long. The bill, 

 much longer than the head, is decidedly subarched, and measures one 

 inch and five-eighths, and is black. The general plumage is of the same 

 gray color usual in other Sandpipers : the crown is dusky, mi.xed with 

 whitish and blackish, and with a little bright rusty on the margins ; a 

 broad whitish line is above the eye ; between the bill and eye dusky, a 

 patch of rust-color on the auriculars : the neck above and on the sides 

 is mixed with whitish ; the back and scapulars black, the feathers tipped 

 with dusky gray and marked with pale rusty : the rump is plain dusky 

 gray, and the upper tail-coverts white, regularly banded with black. 

 The throat is whitish, obsoletely dotted with blackish ; the whole under 

 surface is then, including the tail-coverts, white, each feather being 

 banded with blackish, and one of the bands terminal. The wings arc 

 five and a half inches long ; all the coverts plain dusky with lighter 

 margins ; the under coverts are marbled with blackish and whitish : the 

 primaries are blackish, the first with a white shaft ; the secondaries are 

 pale dusky, edged with whitish. The tail is gray, even, and two inches 

 long, the two middle feathei's are acute, projecting beyond the others 

 the length of their points ; the outer on each side is also somewhat 

 longer than the others : all are pale dusky with white shafts, the white 

 spreading somewhat along the middle, but particularly at the base, 

 where all the feathers but the middle ones are white, as well as the two 

 outer also on the greater part of their inner vane. The feet are black, 

 and the legs very long : the naked space on the tibia one inch and a 

 quarter : the tarsus one and three-quarters long : the middle toe is very 

 nearly one inch without the nail, and about as much over an inch includ- 

 ing it : all the front toes are half-webbed, that is with a membrane con- 

 necting them at base. 



