332 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
least sand-piper in hue, but larger. The white-rumped 
species is readily recognized by its white upper tail-cov- 
erts. The purple sand-piper (Z'. maritima), which is 
fond of haunting rocky shores, is ashy-black above, with 
purplish reflections; the under parts are white; the breast 
is lighter than the back; and it has a white line over the 
eye. The hue changes to a slaty-gray in winter; and the 
young are dotted with dusky below. 
The dunlin, or red-backed sand-piper (7. alpina var. 
americana), is ashy-gray in winter, but in summer the 
upper parts are chestnut, each feather having a central 
black field, and nearly all being white-tipped; the breast 
is streaked with dusky; and the under parts are white, 
except the belly, which has a broad, black area. The red- 
breasted, knot, or robin-snipe (7. canutus), is quite com- 
mon on the Atlantic Coast. The upper parts are, in 
summer, brownish-black, the feathers being tipped with 
ashy-white; and the under are brownish-red. It is gray 
in winter. The pectoral sand-piper, jack snipe, grass 
snipe, or marsh plover (7. maculata), does not look un- 
like the Wilson snipe, though of course both differ in the 
shape of the bill. The general hue is grayish, variegated 
above with chestnut. This species is fonder of muddy 
flats and salt water marshes than of sandy beaches; it is 
also found on wet ground distant from large bodies of 
water. When a wing is alarmed it rises promptly, emit- 
ting loud, rapid notes, and flies in a zigzag manner, like 
the snipe, but if it is travelling quietly from one field to 
another the motion is even. Groups mount to a high 
altitude sometimes and dart about like feathered spectres, 
then drop rapidly to the spot from which they rose. This 
species never goes in large flocks, and that fact, combined 
with its erratic motion in flight, makes heavy bags quite 
rare. 
The Bartramian sand-piper, upland plover, or field 
plover (Actiturus bartramius), is blackish above, varie- 
