642 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— LIMICOL^. 



249. 



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

 on a greenish-browu field. Eump and most upper tail-coverts brovraish-blaok, unvaried ; a 

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

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

 feathers becoming orange-brown, with numerous irregular 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 duU 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 assimilating with the back 

 in character of markings. BiU 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 1.00-1.35. Downy young: Varie- 

 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 K. Mts., in profusion on the prairies of the interior, and oomuion 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 have 

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

 where on thg prairie, in June; eggs normally 4, averaging 1.75 X 1.38; clay-color or pale 

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

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

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

 TRYN'GITBS. (Gr. rpvyyas, truggas, a sandpiper, with suffix -T179, -tes.) Makble-wing 

 Sandpipers. BUI 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 stiU, 

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

 making the bUl appear remarkably short. Wings of ordinary shape. TaU about one-half 

 as long as wings, rounded, with projecting central feathers. Tibiaj denuded below fur 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 

 color. TaU not barred. Related to Trmga in 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. 



(Lat. rufescens, rufescent, reddish. Pig. 449.) Buff-breasted Sandpiper. 

 $ 9 , adult, in breeding plumage : Above, brownish- 

 black with a greenish gloss, every feather broadly mar- 

 gined with tawny or yellowish-brown, the latter the 

 prevailing tone. Under parts buS' or fawn-colored, with- 

 out markings except a few small blackish spots on sides 

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

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

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

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



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

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



641. T. rufes'cens. 



