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SCHINZ'S SANDPIPER. 



Tringa Schinzii, Brehm. 



PLATE CCLXXVIII. Male and Female. 



Although I have met with this species at different times in Kentucky, 

 and along our extensive shores, from the Floridas to Maine, as well as on 

 the coast of Labrador, I never found it breeding. Indeed, I have not 

 met with it in the United States excepting in the latter part of autumn 

 and in winter. Those procured in Labrador were shot in the beginning of 

 August, and were all young birds, apparently about to take their depart- 

 ure. My drawing of the two individuals represented in the plate was 

 made at St Augustine in East Florida, where I procured them on the 2d 

 December 183L I have always found these birds gentle and less shy than 

 any other species of the genus. They fly at a considerable height with 

 rapidity, deviating alternately to either side, and plunge toward the ground 

 in a manner somewhat resembling that of the Solitary Sandpiper. When 

 accidentally surprised, they start with a repeated weet, less sonorous than 

 that of the bird just mentioned. They search for food along the mar- 

 gins of pools, creeks and rivers, or by the edges of sand-bars, and mix 

 with other species. 



Tringa Schinzii, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 249 — 



Amer. Omith. vol. iv. p. 69. pi. 24. fig. 2. Winter Swains, and Richards, Fauna 



Bor. Amer. part. ii. p. 384. 



ScHiNz's Sandpiper, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 109. 



Adult Male in winter. Plate CCLXXVIII. Fig. 1. 



Bill about the length of the head, slender, subcylindrical, straight, 

 compressed at the base, the point slightly enlarged and rather obtuse. 

 Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, excepting at the tip, the 

 ridge narrow and convex, broader and flattened towards the end, the sides 

 sloping, the edges rather obtuse. Nasal groove extending to near the tip ; 

 nostrils basal, linear, pervious. Lower mandible with the angle long and 

 extremely narrow, the dorsal line straight, the sides sloping outwards, the 

 tip a little broader than that of the upper. 



Head rather small, oblong, compressed. Neck of moderate length. 



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