NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 201 



ously reddish margins, that the original color is seen only on the rather broad 

 tips of the feathers. On the scapulars the reddish deepens into bright sienna, 

 which borders the feathers evenly, showing little or no disposition towards the 

 scolloping so conspicuous in Bairdii and minutilla. Some of the scapulars, how- 

 ever, are simply bordered with the prevailing ashy, and ail are tipped with it. 

 The long narrow tertials are sooty brown, fading into ashy on the edges. 

 The secondaries and greater coverts are greyish ash, the former much the 

 lighter, both edged and broadly tipped with pure white. The lesser coverts are 

 dusky brown, edged with lighter. The primaries are dusky, nearly black on 

 their outer vanes and at the tips, their shafts brownish at base, gradually fading 

 into pure white, which again darkens with black at the tip. The innermost 

 primaries are quite conspicuously edged with white. The rump is dark sooty 

 brown. The upper tail coverts are white, the outer series with sagittate 

 dusky spots. The central tail feathers are sooty black, with narrow lighter 

 margins ; the rest a very clear light ashy, margined and tipped with pure white. 

 The under parts are white ; the throat, jugulu.n and breast with a scarcely ap- 

 preciable wash of very light ashy, and very thickly streaked with well defined, 

 narrow, linear-oblong marks of brownish black. These streaks, reduced to 

 their minimum, extend as minute points nearly or quite to the bill, and, chiefly 

 as narrow shaft lines, extend along the sides under- the wings to the tail coverts, 

 the dusky spots on the upper being the continuation of them. The other under 

 parts are pure white and immaculate. The legs and feet are black. 



Young. The young differs very materially from the adult. The upper parts 

 generally are of a nearly uniform dark greyish ash, the feathers with scarcely 

 lighter margins. The black central fields and the reddish margins soon appear 

 at irregular intervals, giving to the upper parts a more or less variegated ap- 

 pearance. The reddish is seen mostly on the scapulars. The wings and wing 

 coverts are exactly like those of the adults, in this respect showing a remarka- 

 ble deviation from the usual rule among the species of this genus, where an 

 evidence of immaturity is to be found in the light ferruginous edgings of all 

 the lesser wing coverts.* The central pair of the upper tail coverts are wholly 

 dusky, and, in addition to the sagittate spots on the outer series, the interme- 

 diate ones are sometimes marked in the same manner. The wash on the jugu- 

 lum is considerably more conspicuous than in the adult, but at the same time 

 it is much more restricted, and the streaks are fewer and very indistinct. It 

 extends, however, along the sides much as in the adults. This state of plumage 

 is identical with that exhibited by the Tringa alpina at the same age in all re- 

 spects, except those of the reddish lesser wing coverts and black upper tail 

 coverts of the latter species. Though the adults of the two species are very 

 different, this close resemblance of the young was probably one cause of the 

 two birds being confounded by American writers. Between the plumage of the 

 adult and young, as characterized above, there are to be found birds of every 

 intermediate stage. A specimen shot in the middle of August has already the 

 markings of adult and young in nearly equal proportions, while a winter speci- 

 men agrees in almost every respect with the adult in breeding plumage described 

 above. This species is also found in the peculiar dusky state of plumage, where 

 all the features are very dark and scarcely relieved by ashy or reddish margins, 

 already adverted to in the case of Actodromas maculala, Bairdii and minutilla. 

 It is most probable that all the species of the genus are liable to this curious 

 variation. 



The relationships of this species are decidedly closest with the A. Cooperi, 

 both having clearly the same form, and the pattern of coloration being very 

 similar. The greatly superior size, however, of the latter, independently of the 

 variegated upper tail coverts, different character of the spots beneath, and other 



* The same feature is seen in Pelidna alpina and Americana, a circumstance which 

 would seem to indicate that the two genera are closely allied, as is indeed the case. 



1861.] 



