COMMON SANDPIPER. 139 



Genus ACTITIS. 



Actitis Illiger, Prodr. Mamm. et Av., p. 263, (pref. April) 1811. Type (by subsequent 

 designation, Reichenbach, Nat. Syst. Vogel, p. xiv., 1852, 1853 ?): Tringa hypoleucos Linne. 

 Tringoides Bonaparte, Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York, Vol. II., p. 326, " 1828 " 

 [November 1827.] Type (by subsequent designation, Richmond (3), p. 627, Aug. 16th = 

 25th, 1917) : Tringa macularia " Wils." 



Guinetta Gray, List Genera Birds, 1st ed., p. 68, April 1840 : Type (by original designation) : 

 Tringa hypoleucos Linnet 



Smallest Totanine Waders with short straight bills, long wings, long tail, short 

 legs, and long toes. The culmen is short, straight, and slender with the groove in 

 the upper mandible extending three parts its length ; the culmen is scarcely longer 

 than the metatarsus, which is about equal to the middle toe and claw ; the inter- 

 ramal space is feathered. 



The long wings have the first primary longest. The tail is long, rounded and 

 about half the length of the wing or twice the length of the culmen. The metatarsus 

 is regularly scutellate in front and behind and about equal to the middle toe and 

 claw in length ; the exposed portion of the tibia is less than half the length of the 

 metatarsus. 



The toes are long and a basal web connects the outer and middle, an indistinct 

 web joining the middle and inner toe. Long hind-toe present. 



96. Actitis hypoleucus. COMMON SANDPIPER. 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 35 (pt. xxxii.), Sept. 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 3, pi. 153, Aug 

 18th, 1913. 



Tringa hypoleucos Linne, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., p. 149, Jan. 1st, 1758 : Sweden. 



Trynga ralloides Vroeg (ex Pallas MS.), Catal. d'Ois., Adumb., p. 7, ante Sept. 22nd, 1764: 



Holland. 



Tringa aurita Latham, Index Ornith. Suppl., p. LXVI., 1801, after May: New South Wales, 



based on Watling drawing No. 244. 



Totanua guinetta Forster, Synopt. Cat. Brit. Birds, p. 24, Dec. 1817. New name for Tringa 



hypoleucos Linne. 



Trynga leucoptera Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat., Vol. II., p. 196, 1827 : Siberia. 



Actitis cinclus Brehm, Naturg. Vogel Deutschl., p. 648 (pref. July) 1831 : Germany. 



Actitis stagnatilis Brehm, ib., p. 649 : Germany. 



Actitis empusa Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.), 1847, p. 222, March 29th, 1848 : Port 



Essington, Northern Territory. 



Actitis megarhynchos Brehm, Vollstand. Vogelfang, p. 314, 1855, pref. Nov. 8th, 1854 : " Im 



Morgenlande, selten im Sudeuropa." 



Acitis cinclus major and minor A. E. Brehm, Verz. Samml., p. 13, 1866. Nom. nud. 



DISTRIBUTION. Winter visitor to Australia, breeding in the northern hemisphere. 



Adult male in summer-plumage. General colour above olive-brown, including 

 the head, back, wings, and tail ; the feathers of the head, hind-neck, and mantle 

 having narrow dark shaft-lines, while those of the back and wings have dark cross- 

 bars, some of the lateral upper tail-coverts are edged with white ; the small marginal 

 coverts round the bend of the wing as also the outer edge of the bastard -wing and 

 outer primary -co verts white ; bastard -wing, primary -co verts, and primary-quills 

 pale brown, the latter white on the middle inner webs, except the outer one, the inner 

 ones edged with white at the tips ; secondaries white at the base and brown at the 

 tips, the middle ones edged with white at the tips, some of the inner quills almost 

 entirely white, the innermost olive-brown barred with darker brown ; middle tail- 

 feathers like the back, the outer feathers paler, notched and tipped with white also 

 mottled with buff y -white ; a white spot in front of the eye and a dark line through 

 the latter ; sides of face and ear -coverts pale brown, intermixed with white, giving 

 a streaked appearance ; throat, abdomen, under tail -coverts white, like the axillaries 

 and under wing-coverts ; fore-neck and breast white with narrow brown shaft-lines 



