634 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— LIMICOLM. 



less ; middle toe and claw 0.75. Young in autumn : No traces of the reddish. Upper parts 

 very light ash, each feather fading into white on the edges, and ^nX\\ a narrow shaft-line of 

 dusky. Entire under parts pure white. Scapulars dusky, edged with whitish. Other parts 

 as in summer adults. In a usual winter dress, there are traces of the reddish on the upper 

 parts generally, and on the hreast. Each feather above is brownish-black, regularly indented 

 and tipped with ashy-white, thus gi'^'ing to the upper parts the appearance of being evenly 

 mottled. Tliere is a buff tinge on the breast, and also on the tips of the rump-feathers. The 

 bend of the wing is nearly as dark as in the adult. At all times the under parts from the 

 jugulum are pure white. Inhabits the sea coasts of nearly all countries ; N. A. at large, 

 abundant coastwise, also in the interior on large bodies of water. Migratory; breeds in high 

 latitudes. 



241. EURYNORHYN'CHUS. {Gr. evpvva, eurtino, I dilate; piyxos, hnigcJws, heak.) SPOON- 

 BILLED Sandpiper. Bill about as long as head, straight, spatulate at end, the " spoon " being 

 about as \vide as long, lozenge-shaped, with the distal angle well marked, the lateral angles 

 rounded off, the pjroximal oue of course running into the rest of the bill ; both mandibles share 

 this extraordinary dilation to about equal extent. The shape is not exactly as in the accom- 

 panying sketch ; but the expansion is remarkably vascular, doubtless changes somewhat in 

 drying, and may not be quite alike in different specimens. Excepting this prodigy of a bill, 

 the characters are those of ordinary sandpipers, especially the smaller species of Actodromas. 

 Toes entirely free ; hind toe extremely small; middle toe and claw a little shorter than tarsus. 

 One species. 



884. (addenda) E. pygmae'us. (Lat. pygmxus, dwarf Fig. -141.) Spoon-billed Sandpipek. 

 Adult 9 , in breeding plumage : General appearance of a stint (as Actodromas minutUla, for 



example), and size little greater. Coloration of upper parts 

 almost exactly as in the species just named, the feathers 

 being black, with indented liglit chestnut-red edgings, and 

 mostly grayish- white tips; crown simply streaked with the 

 reddish color and black. Under parts wliite, the whole throat, 

 breast, and sides of the neck overlaid with bright chestnut (as 

 in a highly-pluniaged sanderling), the breast, back of this 

 colored area, and the sides of the body, spotted with dusky. 

 Primaries plain dusky, with blackish outer webs and ends, 

 and mostly white shafts ; secondaries mostly white fi'om the 

 base ; greater covei-ts white-tipped. Bill and feet black. 

 Length probably 6.00 ; wing 3.90 ; tail almost gone, probably 

 1.75; tarsus 0.90; middle toe and claw 0.80; bill 0.90, the 

 spoon 0.4.5 wide; this singular instrument probably acting as 

 a sifter or strainer rather than as a shovel, in dabbling in soft 

 mire. (Described from No. 92,281, Mus. Smiths. Inst., 

 Plover Bay, E. Siberia, June 2(), ISSl, E. W. Nelson, figured 

 in colors in Nels(.iu's Birds of Bering Sea, etc., Voyage of the 

 ' Corwin,' Washington, 4to, 1883, p. 87. Only one other specimen in this plumage is known 

 to exist; figured in Ibis, 1869, p. 462, pi. 12; see also P. Z. S. 1S71, p. 111. A plain ashy 

 and white plumage is more usual.) Asia, especially India, breeding on the eastern Arctic 

 coast of Siberia, and also on the Arctic coast of Alaska; one of the rarest of birds in collections, 

 only some 25-30 siiecimens being known, mostly from India; in this country, there is prob- 

 ably at present scarcely another specunen known than the one hero described. 



242. LIMO'SA. (Lat. Kmosa, muddy, miry ; ?!»)"s, mud, slime.) Godwits. Bill much longer 

 than head, longer than tarsus, curved a little upward. Culmen flattened toward end, but not 

 furrowed ; end of biU. not notably enlarged or punctulated. Lateral groove of both mandibles 



Fio. 441. — Sroonbilled Sandpiper, 

 nat. fir.e. (By Sliufeldt, from Eidg- 

 way, after nature.) 



