274 



PE.ECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



Sp. Char. Very similar to T. melanoleucus, but smaller and more slender. Bill rather longer 

 than the head, straight, slender, rather compressed ; wing long, pointed ; tail short ; legs long, 

 lower half of the tibia naked ; toes moderate, slender, margined, the outer and middle united 

 at base. 



Adult Slimmer plumage : Above, ashy, mixed with ragged blotches of black, this having a ten- 

 dency to form regular transverse bars on the secondaries and scapulars. Crown and nape with 

 longitudinal streaks of black on a grayish-white gi'ound ; upper taH-coverts pure white, with 

 transverse bars of dusky ; tail white, the middle feathers ashy, and all wOh transverse, rather nar- 



rower, bars of ash. Primaries and their coverts plain dusky Ijlack. Lower parts white, the jugu- 

 lum and breast densely streaked with Idackish, and the sides marked witli more transverse 

 markings of the same color. 



Winter plumage : Above, ashy, sometimes nearly unliroken, but generally slightly variegated, 

 especially on the scapulars and wing-coverts, with transverse spots of dusky, and whitish edgings 

 and dots along the margin of the feathers. Streaks almost absent from the head, neck, and jugu- 

 lum, which are nearly uniform light ashy ; the chin, tliroat, and supraloral stripe white. In other 

 respects like the summer plumage. Young: Like the winter adult, but the light markings above 

 more or less tinged with pale brown or dull ochraceous. 



Total length about 10.50-11.00 inches ; extent, 20.00-21.00; wing, 5.50-6.50 ; culuien, 130- 

 1.55 ; tarsus, 2.00. Bill black ; iris dark brown ; legs and feet bright yellow. 



This species is exceedingly similar to T. melanoleucus in plumage, but differs in the following 

 particulars : in the summer adult the upper parts are more transversely spotted, with a less amount 

 of black, while the lower parts are without well-defined transverse spots or bars of black ; in the 

 winter plumage, the head, neck, and jugulum are nearly uniform ashy, instead of distinctly 

 streaked. 



The European analogue of T. jkivipes is the T. stagnatiUs (Bechst.), the type of the genus. It 

 resembles the American species very closely, but may be immediately distinguished by the rump 

 being wholly pure white, instead of heavily spotterl with grayish and dusky. This peculiarity, 

 being shared by several other Palsearctic species, compared with their American allies, presents a 

 very interesting problem bearing upon the question of geographical variation. This curious paral- 

 lelism was first called attention to by one of the authors of this work in the " American Naturalist " 

 for February, 1874 (p. 108), and the following list of species presented in which it had been 

 noted : — 



American {rump dusky spotted). 

 Rhyacophilus solitarius, 

 Totanus flavipes, 

 Numenius Hudsonicus, 

 Hsematopus palliatus. 



Europca7i (rtimp immaculate white). 

 R. ochropus, 

 T. stagnatilis, 

 N. phseopiis, 

 H. ostralegus. 



The well-known " Yellow-legs " of Eastern sportsmen has a very abundant distri- 

 bution throughout all the United States, not excepting the immediate neighborhood 

 of the Pacific ; for even there individual examples have been recently reported. It 



