350 ASH-COLORED SANDPIPER. 



pale slaty olive, the feathers tipped with white, barred and spotted with 

 black and pale ferruginous ; tail-coverts white, elegantly barred with 

 black ; wings plain dusky, black towards the extremity ; the greater 

 coverts tipped with white ; shafts of the primaries white ; tail pale ashy 

 olive, finely edged with white, the two middle feathers somewhat the 

 longest ; belly and vent white, the latter marked with small arrow-heads 

 of black ; legs and feet black ; toes bordered with a narrow membrane ; 

 eye small and black. 



In some specimens, both of males and females, the red on the breast 

 was much paler, in others it descended as far as the thighs. Both sexes 

 seemed nearly alike. 



TRINGA CINEREA* 



ASH-COLORED SANDPIPEE. 



[Plato LVII. Fig. 2.] 



Arct. Zool. p. 474, No. 386.— Bewick, ii., p. 102. 



The regularly disposed concentric semicircles of white and dark 

 brown that mark the upper parts of the plumage of this species, distin- 

 guish it from all others, and give it a very neat appearance. In 

 activity it is superior to the preceding ; and traces the flowing and 

 recession of the waves along the sandy beach, with great nimbleness, 

 wading and searching among the loosened particles for its favorite food, 

 which is a small thin oval bivalve shell-fish, of a white or pearl color, 

 and not larger than the seed of an apple. These usually lie at a short 

 depth below the surface ; but in some places are seen at low water in 

 heaps, like masses of wet grain, in quantities of more than a bushel 

 together. During the latter part of summer and autumn, these minute 

 shell-fish constitute the food of almost all those busy flocks, that run 

 with such activity along the sands, among the flowing and retreating 

 waves. They are universally swallowed whole ; but the action of the 

 bird's stomach, assisted by the shells themselves, soon reduces them to a 

 pulp. If we may judge from their efi"ects, they must be extremely 

 nutritious, for almost all those tribes that feed on them are at this 

 season mere lumps of fat. Digging for these in the hard sand would be 

 a work of considerable labor, whereas when the particles are loosened 

 by the flowing of the sea, the birds collect them with great ease and 

 dexterity. It is amusing to observe with what adroitness they follow 



* This is the preceding species in winter dress, according to Prince Musignano. 



