Genus TRINGA or CLEPT-POOTED SANDPIPERS. 



Type TRINGA CANUTUS. 



Tringa of Linnseus (1766). — The birds comprising the 

 present genus are characterised by having the toes cleft to the 

 base, the tarsus scutellated anteriorly as well as posteriorly, the 

 tail uniform and unbarred, and the first primary much longer 

 than the fourth. The wings are long and pointed. The tarsus 

 is rather short, the tibia just above the tarsal joint is devoid of 

 feathers. The bill is always shorter than the tarsus and middle 

 toe combined, sometimes decurved, narrow, slightly compressed, 

 and rugose towards the tip. Nostrils lateral, and situated in a 

 groove. Toes, three in front ; hind toe present in all species 

 except arenaria. 



This genus is composed of twenty-one species and subspecies, 

 coniined during the breeding season to the northern Palsearctic 

 and Nearctic regions, but in winter is almost cosmopolitan. 

 Twelve species are included as British, but only one breeds 

 within our limits. 



The Cleft-footed Sandpipers are dwellers on tundras, marshes, 

 the banks of streams, and in winter on the sea coasts. They are 

 birds of rapid fiight and extended migrations, run and walk with 

 ease, and frequently wade. Their notes are clear and shrill, 

 some of them not unmusical. They subsist on insects, worms, 

 crustaceans, mollusks, and ground fruits, etc. They make scanty 

 nests on the ground, and the four eggs are pyriform in shape, 

 and spotted. They are monogamous ; gregarious in winter, more 

 or less social during the breeding season. 



