SANDERLING. 



147 



mated toes of the present species are always a reliable distinguishing 

 mark. 



This is an eastern species, which prefers the shores of the Atlantic 

 as its line of travel, passing up north in spring. It is tolerably 

 common in Manitoba and the North-West, but is not seen in Alaska. 

 Its centre of abundance seems to be the shores of Labrador and 

 Hudson's Bay, where it breeds in great numbers. They can raise 

 only one brood, for they return from the north before August is out,' 

 and soon pass on south, where they are said to winter from the 

 Oarolinas southward. 



Genus CALIDRIS Cuvier. 

 CALIDRIS ARENARIA (Linn.). 



105. Sanderling. (248) 



A<lnU ill summer: — Head, neck and upper parts varied with black, ashy and 

 bright reddish ; below, from the breast, pure white ; tail, except central feathers, 

 light-ash, nearly white; primaries, gray with blackish edges and tips, the 

 shafts of all and bases of most, white ; secondaries, white, except a space at the 

 end, and greater coverts broadly white tipped; bill and feet, black. Adult in 

 irinfer and youiu/ : — No reddish; speckled with black and white; sometimes 

 tawny tinged on the jugulum. Length, 74-8; wing, 45-5; tail, 2^; l>ill, about 1 ; 

 tarsus, 1, or rather less; middle toe and claw, f. 



Hab. — Nearly cosmopolitan, breeding in the Arctic an<l sul)arctic regions, 

 migrating in America, south to Chili and Patagonia. 



Nest, a hollow in the ground, lined with grass and dead leaves. 



Eggs, two to four, greenish-brown, spotted and blotched with browii of 

 'lifferent shades. 



