642 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— LIMIG0L2E. 



wings ; on the scapulars and long inner secondaries the black resolved in regular angulai bars 

 on a greenish-brown iield. Eump and most upper tail-coverts brownish-black, unvaiied ; a 

 few of the longer coverts barred to correspond with tail. Middle tail-feathers dark ashy- 

 brown, with paler or rufescent edges, and irregular or broken bars, throughout ; other tail- 

 feathers bcciiming orange-brown, with namerous in-egular or broken bars or spots of black ; 

 with one broad, firm, subterminal black bar, and tips white for a distance increasing on succes- 

 sive feathers. Under parts dull soiled white, or tawny-white, the rufescence strongest on 

 jugulum and breast, the jugulum streaked with blackish, and sides with sharp arrow-heads 

 of the same. Axillars and lining of wings pure white, regularly barred with black. Prim- 

 aries brownish-black; the 1st at least, and sometimes all of them, barred with white on the 

 inner webs ; shaft of the first white, of the others brown. Secondaries like primaries, but 

 usually barred with white on both webs, the inner ones gradually assimihating with the back 

 in character of markings. Bill yellow, with black ridge and tip ; feet dull yellowish, drying 

 darker; iris dark brown. Length 11.75-12.75; extent 21.50-23.00; wing 6.25-7.00; tail 

 about 3.50; tarsus 1.75; bill, and middle toe and claw 1.00-1.25. Downy young: A'arie- 

 gated above with white, brown, or black ; white below ; bill bluish with dark tip ; legs clay- 

 color. They are 5 or 6 inches long before any feathers sprout. N. Am. at large, rare W. of 

 the R. Mts., iu profusion on the prairies of the interior, and comuion eastward; N. to the 

 Yukon. Breeds from the middle districts northward ; winters extralimital. A fine game 

 bird ; but those who only know it when its fears are excited by incessant persecution liave 

 little idea what a gentle and confiding creature it is on the western prairies. Nest any- 

 where on the prairie, in June; eggs normally 4, averaging 1.75 X 1.28; clay-color or pale 

 creamy-brown without olive shade; spotted all over, but most thickly at the large end, with 

 small, sharp, rounded surface marks of umber-brown, among which are the purplish -gi-ay shell- 

 spots ; the spots rarely if ever larger than a split pea, and seldom confluent. 

 249. TRYN'GITES. (Gr. rpiyyas, truggas, a sandpiper, with suffix -ri^f, -tes.) MAEBLE-wiNa 

 Sandpipers. Bill shorter than head, very slender, tapering, and acute, grooved nearly its 

 whole length, and thus much as in Tringa ; but gape of mouth extensive, and end of bill not 

 dilated and sensitive. Frontal feathers embracing base of upper mandible in nearly transverse 

 outline, and extending quite to nostrils ; those on side of under mandible reaching further still, 

 and those of chin completely filling the interramal space ; such extension of the feathers 

 making tlie bill appear remarkably short. Wings of ordinary shape. Tail about one-half 

 as long as wdngs, rounded, with projecting central feathers. Tibife denuded below for a 

 space less than length of middle toe. Tarsus longer than middle toe and claw. Toes cleft to 

 the base, or with only the most rudimentary basal webbing. Primaries peculiarly marbled in 

 cidor. Tail not barred. Related to Tringa iu many respects ; but the acute and hardened 

 tip of the bill, and long gape, are totanine, and on the whole the affinities seem to be with 

 the last genus. One species. 

 641. T. rufes'cens. (Lat. rufescens, rufescent, reddish. Fig. 44-9.) Buff-breasted Sandpifer. 



(J 9 , adult, in breeding plumage : Above, brownish- 

 black witli a greenish gloss, every feather broadly mar- 

 gined with tawny or yellowish-brown, the latter the 

 prevailing tone. Under parts buff or fawn-colored, with- 

 out markings except a few small blackish spots on sides 

 of breast. Central tail-feathers greenish-brown, blacken- 

 ing at ends ; others paler, often rufescent, with white or 

 Fig. 449. — BufF-breaeted Sandpiper, tawny tips and subterminal black bar; and usually, also, 

 nat. Bize. (Adnat. del. E. C.) some black marbling or streaking. Prhnaries and sec- 



ondaries ashy-brown blackening at end, the extreme tip white — most of the inuer webs 

 of the primaries, and both webs of the secondaries pearly white, speckled and marbled with 



