202 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



features, at once separates it without need of a more extended comparison. The 

 larger size, pectoral wash, and black rump and upper tail coverts of A. maculata, 

 at once distinguishes it, while the very diminutive proportions of A. minutilla 

 render comparison equally unnecessary. Its relationships to the A. Bairdii 

 have already been discussed. 



It is a little extraordinary that with regard to so marked and well character- 

 ized a Sandpiper as the present, there should have arisen the confusion which 

 until recently has prevailed among authors, nearly all referring it to a very dif- 

 ferent bird. To use the apt and expressive words of the General Report, it has 

 been ''sadly misnamed by American ornithologists." When in mature plumage 

 it bears very little resemblance to the Tringa Schinzii, Brehm., which, according 

 to the same authority, is " merely a smaller variety, or perhaps only smaller 



specimens of the common Tringa alpina ." This grave error probably 



originated from two causes : first, that Say, in his original description (the first 

 notice of the bird by an American writer) designates it as Pelidna cinclus, var. ; 

 and secondly, that though the adults are as different as possible, the young of 

 the two, as already stated, are nearly identical in plumage, almost the only dif- 

 ference lying in the proportions of the bill and feet; characters which, 

 though important and. essential, might readily be overlooked in birds of this 

 group, in which the colors were similar. This similarity in the young and 

 great difference between the adults of the present species and the Tringa alpina, 

 var., caused Bonaparte, in his American Ornithology, to fall into a curious 

 error. Under the head of Tringa Schinzii, Brehm., he describes the present 

 species accurately, properly quoting the Pelidna cinclus, var. of Say ; yet only 

 the description of what he considered as the young " T. Schinzii " applies to the 

 A. Bonapartei. For, speaking of the adult, he says : " This Sandpiper is well 

 known to appear in a summer vesture analogous to that of Tringa alpina, at the 

 same season, but we have never met with an American specimen in that state ;" and 

 further on he describes adult European specimens as having " the breast almost 

 entirely 'of a jet black color," clearly referring to the so-called Tringa Schmzii, 

 i. <?., to the smaller variety of the T. alpina. Nuttall, probably following Bona- 

 parte, commits precisely the same mistake. Audubon's Tringa Schinzii is un- 

 doubtedly the present species, though the measurements given are rather those 

 of A. Bairdii ; and, for reasons stated elsewhere, I am inclined to think that his 

 figure of the male was taken from an individual in the peculiar abnormal dusky 

 state of plumage already so often adverted to. The descriptions of Tringa 

 Schinzii by other American authors, and by those European writers quoted in 

 the list of synonyms, all appear to refer to the true Bonapartei. 



The description by Schlegel, in 1844, of Tringa Bonapartei, unmistakeably 

 points to the present species, and, as it is the first distinctive specific appella- 

 tion, must be employed. Parzudaki, in his Catalogue, very wrongly gives Bo- 

 napartei, Sch., as a synonym of Pelidna maculata, (pectoralis of Say.) Scolopax 

 pusilla of Gmelin is in all probability the present bird, as particular mention is 

 made of the white upper tail coverts ; but from the brevity of the description, 

 it is impossible to determine this point satisfactorily. 



ACTODROMAS (HsTEROPYGiA) CoopERi (Baird) Coues. Cooper's Sandpiper. 

 Tringa Cooperi, Baird, Gen. Rep. 1858, 716. 



Sp. char. Largest of the group. Bill considerably longer than the head, -ex- 

 ceeding the tarsus, straight, rather stout, tip scarcely expanded. Feathers ex- 

 tending on side of lower mandible scarcely further than those on the upper. 

 Wings long, pointed, first primary decidedly longest ; tertials moderately long 

 and rather slender. Tail moderate, slightly but decidedly doubly emarginate, 

 the central feathers projecting. Tarsus rather longer than the middle toe ; 

 tibia bare for half the length of the tarsus ; toes all long, slender and slightly 

 margined. Adult in spring. Upper parts a nearly uniform light greyish ash, 



[July, 



