SAND-PLO VERSAR US 



813 



EURYNORHYNCHtJS. 



(From The Ibis.) 



This habit, unique, so far as is known, among the group, is indulged 

 in during the breeding-season, and the inflation is accompanied by 

 the utterance of a deep, hollow and resonant note, as subsequently 

 observed by Mr. E. W. Nelson (Auk, 1884, pp. 218-221), who 

 afterwards figured the bird (N. H. Collect. 

 Alaska, pp. 108, 109, pi. vii.) in this extra- 

 ordinary condition, when it presents almost 

 the appearance of a RUFF, while his experi- 

 ence has been corroborated by Mr. Murdoch 

 (Rep. Internal. Pol. Exped. Point Barrow, p. 

 111). Two other forms must however be 

 mentioned. 1 These are the broad-billed 

 Sandpiper, T. platyrliyncha, of the Old World, 

 which seems to be more Snipe-like than any 

 that are usually kept in this section, and the 

 marvellous Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Euryno- 

 rhynchus pygm&us (cf. Harting, Ibis, 1869, 

 pp. 426-434), the true home of which 

 has still to be discovered, according to the 

 experience of Baron Nordenskjold in the 

 memorable voyage of the ' Vega.' 2 



SAND-PLOVER, a name given locally to PLOVERS of the 



genus JEgialitis. 



SAND-RUNNER, like the foregoing, but perhaps sometimes 

 used more for SANDPIPER. 



SAPSUCKER, a common name in North America for many of 

 the smaller WOODPECKERS, Dendrocopus pubescens, wllosus and others, 

 but strictly only applicable to Sphyropicus varius, which with its 

 local forms, nuchalis and ruber, and congener thyroideus, has a lingual 

 structure, first described by Macgillivray for Audubon (Orn. Biogr. v. 

 pp. 537, 538), very different from that of most Picidas, and a mode of 

 feeding to correspond (cf. Coues, Birds of the North West, pp. 285-289). 



SARUS (Hind. Saras and Sarhans), often corrupted into 

 " Cyrus," the ordinary name for Grus antigone, one of the finest of 

 the CRANES (p. 112). 



1 Reference has already been made to the presumably extinct ^Echmorhynchus 

 (p. 712, note 2) and Prosobonia (pp. 225, 226), if the latter really belonged to 

 this group. 



2 Air. Seebohm's volume before mentioned (p. 733, note 2) The Geographical 

 Distribution of the Family Cliaradriidae, or the Plovers, Sandpipers, Snipes and 

 their allies, contains an account of every species and figures of a great many of the 

 Sandpipers. Yet a good work on the subject is still to be desired, especially if it 

 will describe accurately the range of the various species, distinguishing between 

 their summer-homes and their winter-resorts, while recording also their occasional 

 wanderings. 



