THE SUMMER-SNIPES. 283 



though the culmen exceeds the length of the middle toe and 

 claw. It is nearly straight, with only a slight curve at the end, 

 but the tarsus is comparatively short and is not longer than the 

 middle toe and claw. Thus the Summer-Snipes never stand 

 so high on their legs as Red-shanks or Green Sandpipers, and 

 are expert swimmers, like the Phalaropes. 



Two species of Tringoides are known, our British T. hypo- 

 kucus and the American T. macularius, which also visits us 

 occasionally. 



I. THE SUMMER-SNIPE, OR COMMON SANDPIPER. 

 TRINGOIDES HYPOLEUCUS. 



Tringa hypoleucus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 250 (1766). 

 Actitis hypoleucus, Macgill. Brit. B. iv p. 351 (1852). 

 Totanus hypoleucus, Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 127, pi. 563 



(1877) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 446 (1883) ; 



Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 117, pi. 30, figs 7-9 (1885); 



Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 591 (1889). 

 Tringoides hypoleucus, B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 173 (1883); 



Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 456 (1896). 



(Plate LXXXIX. Fig. i.) 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. General colour above bronzy- 

 brown, the feathers with arrow-shaped central markings of 

 black, which take the form of bars on the scapulars and inner 

 secondaries, which are like the back; wing-coverts bronzy- 

 brown like the back, but regularly barred across with blackish, 

 the median and greater coverts with ashy fringes, the latter 

 rather broadly tipped with white ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, 

 and quills brown with an olive gloss, the secondaries tipped 

 with white and having a bread white base ; lower back, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts like the back, the lateral coverts barred 

 with blackish and with white on the outer web ; tail-feathers 

 bronzy-brown, with irregular cross-bars of blackish-brown, the 

 middle feathers narrowly, but the outer feathers broadly, tipped 

 with white, the penultimate feather barred with white on the 

 outer web, the outermost feather almost entirely white, with a 

 little brown on the inner web, which is barred with blackish ; 

 crown of head and neck bronzy-brown, with narrow mesial 

 shaft-lines of blackish-brown; a narrow superciliary line of 



