440 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Sub-Family TRINGIN^E. The Sandpipers. 



Bill shorter than the naked leg, widened or rather spoon-shaped at the end, with 

 the edges not bent over; roof of mouth excavated to the tip; no groove along the 

 culmen; ear behind the eye; tail without bands? 



TRINGA, LINN^US. 

 Tringa, LINN.EUS. Syst. Nat, (1735). (Type T. canuius, L.) 



DESCRIPTION. 



Size moderate or small ; general form adapted to dwelling on the shores of both 

 salt and fresh waters, and subsisting on minute or small animals, in pursuit of 

 which they carefully examine and probe with their bills sandy or muddy deposits 

 and growths of aquatic plants, rocks, or other localities; flight rather rapid, but 

 not very strong nor long continued; bill moderate, or rather long, straight or 

 slightly curved towards the end, which is generally somewhat expanded and flat; 

 longitudinal grooves, in both mandibles, distinct, and nearly the whole length of the 

 bill; wings long, pointed; the first primary longest; tertiaries long; secondaries 

 short, with their tips obliquely incised; tail short; legs moderate, or rather long, 

 slender; the lower portion of the tibia naked, and with the tarsus covered in front 

 and behind with transverse scales; hind toe very small ; fore toes rather slender, 

 with a membranous margin, scaly and flattened underneath, free at base. 



This genus comprises a large number of species of all parts of the world, 

 some of which are very extensively diffused, especially during the season of their 

 southern or autumnal migration. Generally, these birds are met with in flocks, fre- 

 quenting every description of locality near water, and industriously searching for 

 the minute animals on which they feed. The species of the United States are mi- 

 gratory, rearing their young in the north, and, in autumn and winter, extending to 

 the confines of the Republic and into South America. The colors of the spring and 

 autumnal plumage are different in nearly all species, though that of the two sexes is 

 very similar. 



TRINGA CANUTUS. Unnceus. 

 The Gray-back; Robin Snipe. 



Fringa canutus, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 251. 



Tringa cinerea, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 673. Wils. Am. Orn., VII. 

 (1813) 36. 



Tringa islandica, Audubon. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 130. 75., Birds Am., V. 

 (1842) 254. 



Tringa rufa, Wilson. Am. Orn., VII. (1813) 57. 



