240 



KEY AND DESCRIPTION 



Knot 



the summer than in the winter with black, brown, and buff. 



The young has the breast finely spotted or streaked with black- 

 ish, and the flanks 

 barred or streaked 

 with the same. The 

 knot is found on 

 muddy flats and 

 sandy beaches, prob- 

 ing the ground, like 

 the true snipe, for 

 its food, which con- 

 sists of crustaceans 

 and mollusks. The 

 knots bunch very 

 closely when decoyed, 



and so numbers can be killed by a single discharge. (Robin 



Snipe.) 



Length, 10|; whig, 6J ; tail, 2| ; tarsus, 1-J ; culmen, If. Nearly all 

 coasts ; breeding in the Arctic regions, and wintering from Florida to South 

 America. 



T. Purple Sandpiper (235. Tringa maritima). — A northern 

 sandpiper, with grayish-purple to ashy head, breast, and back ; 

 white throat, and whitish, somewhat streaked belly. The ashy 

 breast is one of the most constant of its peculiarities. The 

 bill is \ inch longer than the tarsus, and the tibia is feathered 

 to the joint. It has a fondness for. rocky shores, where it se- 

 cures its food from among the seaweeds attached to the stones. 



Length, 9; wing, 5 (-ll-.Of); tail, 2' ; tarsus, |; culmen, \\. North- 

 ern hemisphere ; breeding in the Arctic regions, and wintering southward 

 to the Middle States and rarely to Florida. 



8. Pectoral Sandpiper (2.39. Tringa maculdta). — A short- 

 necked, mottled, dark-brown-backed, white-bellied, streaky buff- 

 breasted sandpiper, with black upper tail coverts slightly 

 tipped with huff. The back has much black niixed with the 

 brown and buff, the centers of the feathers being black. This 

 is an inhabitant of grassy meadows rather than beaches, and 



