260 



SCOLOPACIDiE, SNIPE, ETC. GEN. 217, 218, 219. 



217. 



M 



Spotted Sandpiper. 



Genus TRINGOIDES Bonaparte. 

 Bill short, straight, grooved nearly to tip ; 7-g 



wing about 4; tail about 2; bill, tarsus and middle toe, each, about 1. 

 Above, olive (quaker-color ; exactly as in a cuckoo) with a coppery lustre, 

 tinely varied with black; line over eye, and entire under parts, pure white, 

 with numerous sharp circular black spots, larger and more crowded in the 9 

 than in the $ , entii-ely wanting in very young birds ; secondaries broadly 



white-tipped and inner primaries with a 

 white spot ; most of the tail feathers like 

 the back, with subterminal black bar and 

 white tip ; bill pale yellow, tipped with 

 black ; feet flesh-color. N. Am., extremely 

 abundant everywhere near water, and 



riG. 172. Spotted Sandpiper. -, t j.i ij.ii j. r -i 



breednig throughout the country ; tamu- 

 iarly known as the saudlark, peetweet, teeter-tail, tip-up, etc., these last 

 names being given in allusion to its habit (shared by allied species) of 

 jetting the tail as it moves ; a custom as marked as the continual bobbiug of 

 the head of the solitary tattler and others. Nest a slight affair of dried 

 grasses, on the ground, often in a field or orchard, but generally near water ; 

 eggs 4, pointed, creamy or clay colored, blotched with blackish and neutral 

 tint. WiLS., vii, 60, pi. 59, f. 1; Nutt., ii, 162; Auc, v, 303, pi. 342; 

 Cass. IuBd., 735 '. macularius. 



218. Genus PHILOMACHUS Moehring. 



\ I Ruff{$). Reeve (9). Bill straight, about as long as the head, 

 H grooved nearly to tip ; gape reaching behind culmen ; outer and middle toe 



webbed at base, inner cleft ; tail barred ; $ in the breeding season with the 

 face bare and beset with papillaj, and the neck with an extravagant ruff of 

 elongated feathers ; plumage endlessly variable in color ; about 10 ; wing 

 6J-7 ; tail 2J-3 ; bill 1-^; tarsus If; middle toe and claw IJ ; 9 smaller, 

 the head fully feathered, and no ruff. A widely distributed bird of the Old 

 World, noted for its pugnacity ; occasionally killed on the coast of New 

 England and the Middle States ; some half dozen instances are recorded. 

 Nutt., ii, 131; Cass, in Bd., 737; La we., Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1852, 220 

 (Long Island) ; Brewster, Am. Nat. vi, 306 (Massachusetts). . pugnax. 



,|3V 



219. Genus ACTITURUS Bonaparte. 

 Bartramian Sandpiper. Upland Plover. Field Plover. Bill straight, 

 about as long as the head, grooved |- its length, the gape very deep, 

 reaching nearly to below the eyes, the feathers extending on the upper 

 mandible beyond those on the lower, which do not fill the intcrramal space ; 

 tail very long, more than half the wing, graduated ; tarsi much longer than 

 the middle toe and claw ; tibite bare nearly the length of the latter ; length 

 11-13; wing 6-7; tail 3-4; bill 1-li ; middle toe and claw the same; 



