ifiij 



SCOLOPAriD.E — TflE SXIPE FAMILY - AUTODROMAS. 



231 



(liifky, with pnler edgeH ; other rectricps li>,'ht browiii.Hh K'"yi with white Hhiifts. Crown light 

 ^(rin'i^h I'ulvous or ochraceous, heavily streaked with liiai'k ; wiiij,'-coverts brownish uray, with 

 darker centres and paler eilyes, the Mhafts lihakish ; tertials eii),'ecl with ochraceous ; juininries 

 iliisky. A liuht Muperciliary stripe, and a darker one on siile oi' liie head ; neek and juguluni very 

 I'ale i,'rayisli liilvous or fulvans-ashy streaked with dn-ky ; sides and erissnm narrowly streaked ; 

 iillier lower parts immaculate white. Ailiill in iviutir: Ahove, rather dark brownish >,'rny, the 

 IValliers with indistiiutly darker eeutres ; rump, ete., as in summer plumage. Superciliary stripe 

 mid lower parts white, the jngulum light ashy, indistinctly streaked. Yimiiij, Jlrnt plumnfjc : Very 

 similar to the summer plumage of the adult, but many of the scapulars and interscapulars tipped 

 with white, these feathers without any bars ; wing-coverts bordered with ochraceous. Juguluiu 

 sull'used with pale fulvous, and obsoletely streaked.* 



Total length, about 5.50 to G.6(> inches; e.xtent, 11.00 to 12.50; wing, about 3.5U to nearly 

 l.uo ; eulmen, about .75 to .92 ; tarsus, .75 ; ndddle toe, .(iO. Bill tluU black ; iris dark brown; 

 iigs and toes dusky. 



This abundant and extensively diffused species resenildes very closely, both in its small size 

 and in its colore, at all seasons, the ecpially foniinon and widely distributed Semipalmated Sand- 

 ]iiper, Ereumtcs pusiUus. It may be immediately distinguisiied, however, by the completely cleft 

 toes, the other species having all the anterior toes webbed at the base. 



This coniiuoii and familiar Saiidpiitcr has an almost iinivoisal distrilmtiun through- 

 out North Amt'ri(ui, and in tlio winter wanders in greater or less nund)er.s into Mex- 

 ico, Central America, and over a large portion of South America. It breeds as far 

 south as Sable Island, and also in Newfonndland, in Labrador, in Alaska, and in the 

 higher Arctic regions generally. A limited nnnd)er winter in the Gnlf States ; but 

 iu all the rest of North America this bird appears only in its migrations, passing 

 slowly north in the spring, pausing on its way at every suitable feeding-place, and 

 liiially passing out of the United States about the last of Jlay. Within four or five 

 weeks of tlie final departure of the last stragglers of the movement northward, the 

 advance of the returning host begins to reappear, moving southward. It can hardly 

 be that those which thus early show themselves in Xew England — some of them 

 early in July — and even in regions much farther south, can have attended to the 

 duties of incubation. Their reappearance thus early can only be satisfactorily ex- 

 pla'ued by the supposition that both the southern and the northern movements are 

 attended by a certain, but probably not a very large, proportion of unmated, imma- 

 ture, or barren Inrds. These accompany their kindred in their journey north in the 

 spring, linger behind in the rich feeding-places on their way, and being undetained 



' Some young specimens, apparently of the some age and almost certainly the same species, in the 

 collection differ very strikingly from the above description in the less amount or total absence of rufous 

 above, the feathera having merely narrow ochraceous borders, and scarcely any white on the ends of the 

 feathers; the wliole plumage being thus very much duller. 



iii 



