446 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



the eye ashy-white ; throat, abdomen, under wing coverts, axillary feathers, and 

 under tail coverts, white ; breast and neck before ashy-white ; all the feathers darker 

 at base, and with partially concealed lanceolate or pointed spots of brownish-black; 

 quills brownish-black; shaft of first primary white, of others brown; secondaries 

 tipped and edged with white ; tertiaries edged with dull reddish-yellow; bill and 

 feet dark greenish-black ; iris dark-hazel. 



Total length, about nine inches; wing, five and a quarter; tail, two and a half; 

 bill to gape, one and one-eighth ; tarsus, one inch. 



Hob. The entire coasts of North America; South America; Europe. 



This well-known species is pretty abundantly distributed 

 along our coast in the spring and autumn migrations, when 

 it appears in small flocks, in May, in the former seasons, 

 and in August and September in the latter. It has all the 

 habits of the other Sandpipers, but is more often seen in 

 the marshes and meadows, particularly in the autumn, than 

 the others, where it eagerly pursues the various insects 

 which are found there, particularly the grasshoppers and 

 crickets, that furnish food for so many of our passing birds. 

 This species is best known to our gunners by the name of 

 the Grass-bird. It is a favorite with them because of its 

 fine flavor on the table ; and it is found in considerable 

 abundance in our markets, where it meets a ready sale at a 

 very remunerative price. 



TRINGA BONAPARTII. Schlegel. 

 Bonaparte's Sandpiper. 



Tringa Schinzii, Nuttall. Man., II. 109. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 529. 

 76., Birds Amer., V. (1842) 275. 



Tringa Bmapartii, Schlegel. Rev. Crit. Ois. Eur., (1844) 89. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Smaller; bill slightly arched towards the tip, which is somewhat enlarged and 

 flattened, about the length of the head ; grooves in both mandibles long and nar- 

 row;* wings long; secondary quills obliquely incised at the ends; tail rather longer 

 than usual in this group, with the feathers broad; legs rather long and slender; toes 

 free at base; hind toe very small; upper parts light ashy-brown; darker on the 

 rump; nearly all the feathers with ovate or wide lanceolate central spots of brownish- 

 black, and many of them edged with bright yellowish-red ; upper tail coverts white ; 

 under parts white, with numerous small spots of dark-brown on the neck before, 

 breast, and sides, somewhat disposed to form transyerse bands on the last: quills 

 brownish-black, darker at the tips; shaft of outer primary white, of others light- 

 brown; middle feathers of tail brownish-black; outer feathers lighter, and edged 



