THE SUMMER-SNIPIif. 283 



though the culmen exceeds the length of the middle toe and 

 claw. It is nearly straight, with only a slight curve at the end, 

 but the tarsus is comparatively short and is not longer than the 

 middle toe and claw. Thus the Summer-Snipes never stand 

 so high on their legs as Red-shanks or Green Sandpipers, and 

 are expert swimmers, like the Phalaropes. 



Two species of Tringoides are known, our British T. hypo- 

 leucus and the American T. macularius, which also visits us 

 occasionally. 



I. THE SUMMER-SNIPE, OR COMMON SANDPIPER. 

 TRINCOIDES HYPOLEUCUS. 



Trlnga hypoleucus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 250 (1766). 

 Actitis hypoleucus, Macgill. Brit. B. iv p. 351 (1852). 

 Totanus hypoleucus^ Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 127, pi. 563 



(1877) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 446 (1883) ; 



Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 117, pi. 30, figs 7-9(1885); 



Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 591 (1889). 

 Tringoides hypokucus, B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 173 (1883); 



Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 456 (1896). 



(Plate LXX 'XIX. F& I.) 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. General colour above bronzy- 

 brown, the feathers with arrow-shaped central markings of 

 black, which take the form of bars on the scapulars and inner 

 secondaries, which are like the back; wing-coverts bronzy- 

 brown like the back, but regularly barred across with blackish, 

 the median and greater coverts with ashy fringes, the latter 

 rather broadly tipped with white ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, 

 and quills brown with an olive gloss, the secondaries tipped 

 with white and having a bread white base ; lower back, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts like the back, the lateral coverts barred 

 with blackish and with white on the outer web ; tail-feathers 

 bronzy-brown, with irregular cross-bars of blackish-brown, the 

 middle feathers narrowly, but the outer feathers broadly, tipped 

 with white, the penultimate feather baned with white on the 

 outer web, the outermost feather almost entirely white, with a 

 little brown on the inner web, which is barred with blackish ; 

 crown of head and neck bronzy-brown, with narrow mesial 

 shaft-lines of blackish-brown; a narrow superciliary line of 



