328 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



time I have made my way cautiously to the margin of some old mill pond, 

 or secluded lakelet in the forest, expecting to see Wood duck. Hooded 

 mergansers, or herons, but found only a scattered troup of Solitary sand- 

 pipers probing in the "spring moss" ( C h a r a f o e t i d a ), or wading quiet- 

 ly in the shallow water, or standing on water-soaked logs which projected 

 above the surface of the pool. Some of them always seemed to l^e aware of my 

 approach and silenth' nodded in their characteristic mechanical manner. 

 They are silent birds and quite unsuspicious, rarely taking wing unless very 

 closely approached. Sometimes when one member of the party is shot the 

 others will not take wing, or, if so, will fly only a short distance, uttering a 

 mellow whistle which suggests the bird's alliance with Yellow -legs, but is far 

 more subdued and melodious. When alighting they have the habit, even 

 more than other members of this family, of holding their long wings stretched 

 upward almost vertically, displaying the striking pattern of the wing- 

 markings and slowh' folding them as their poise is gained and the search 

 fur food resumed. 



Catoptrophorus semipalmatus (Gmelin) 

 Willci 



Plate 38 



Scolopax semipalmata Gmelin. Syst. Nat. 1788. Ed. i. 2: 659 

 Totanus semipalmatus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 251, fig. 219 

 Symphemia semipalmata A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 258 



catoptrS'phorns, Gr. KaTo-n-Tpov. mirror, and 4iipo>. <f>op, to carr\', referring 

 to the mirrorlike wing patch; semipalma'tifi, Lat., half webbed 



Description. Front toes webbed at the base; tarsvts li times the 

 middle toe; bill thick, slightly recurved, longer than head, the upper man- 

 dible grooved for abottt ^ its length; end portion of wing feathers black, 

 bases of the primaries and greater portion of secondaries white ; axillars 

 and longer under coverts black; lesser under coverts of the humerus and of 

 the radius and ulna white; the wings thus showing striking black and white 

 pattern when extended; tail grayish wliitc; upper tail coverts mostly tvhite, 

 barred at the base with dusky. Summer: Upper parts varied with blackish 

 and ashy ; head and f oreneck streaked, breast and sides barred with dusky ; 

 belly white. Winter: Upper parts plain ashv, or brownish grav; under 

 parts white shaded with gray on the foreneck, breast and sides. Young: 



