3l6 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The Red-backed sandpiper, Dunlin, Black-bellied sandpiper, Black- 

 heart, Winter snipe or Purre, is well known to the bay men of Long Island. 

 It usually occurs in flocks, sometimes of hundreds of individuals, which 

 sweep along the coast or over the marshes like clouds, now showing the 

 glistening white of their under parts, and now their leaden backs, as they 

 swiftly wheel to come up the wind and alight on the muddy flats, to scatter 

 immediately in search of the small worms, crustaceans, and insects which 

 are hidden among the grasses or seaweed. On such occasions they keep up a 

 contented, peeping chatter. When frightened, or flying, they utter a hoarse, 

 grating note. 



Erolia ferruginea (Briinnich) 



Curlew Sandpiper 



Tringa ferruginea Briinnich. Orn. Borealis. 1764. p. 53 



Tringa subarquata DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 239, fig. 2 13 



Tringa ferruginea A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. '^o- 244 



cro'lia, name given by Vieillot, meaning unknown to me; jerrugi'nea, Lat., rusty or 



reddish 



Description. Bill decurved beyond the middle, slightly widened at 

 the tip; tarsus longer than middle toe and claw. Summer: Upper parts 

 rusty and blackish; under parts cinnamon-rufous or chestnut -red, slightly 

 barred with dusky on the flanks and belly; tail coverts luliitc barred with 

 black. Winter: Upper parts ashy brown with dusky shaft streaks ; under 

 parts and upper tail coverts white, the breast streaked with gray. 



Length 7-9 inches; wing 4.8-5.2; tarsus 1.2; tibia bare .7; bill 1.4-1.6. 



This palearctic species is of rare occurrence in America. Audubon 

 mentions a specimen from Long Island, and Giraud states that Mr Bell 

 obtained seven or eight specimens in Fulton Market, New York, and mentions 

 two or three others obtained there — "all of which were procured on the 

 ever productive shores of Long Island." In Mr Butcher's Collection there 

 is a female taken May 24, 1883, on Shinnecock bay, L. I. [Auk, i: 32-33], 

 and another presumably from Long Island, which was sent to Mr Butcher 

 by mail, June 9, 1891. 



The Curlew sandpiper associates with dunlins on the shores and mud 

 flats, and in appearance resembles a diminutive Knot with a long decurved 

 bill [Seebohm]. 



