PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 349 



are dark : a very distinct brown line passes from the eye to the upper 

 mandible : the cheeks, neck above, sides of the neck, and beneath down 

 to the breast are grayish with a rufous tinge, and beautifully streaked 

 with blackish, occupying the middle of each feather, along the shaft : 

 surrounded and well defined (in perfect specimens)' by these markings 

 the throat and chin are of a purer white than in other Tringce : the 

 remaining lower parts from the breast to the lower tail-coverts, includ- 

 ing the flanks and long axillary feathers are white, the base of the plum- 

 age dark plumbeous, and a few blackish streaks along the shafts of 

 some of the flank and vent feathers : the feathers of the neck above, 

 owing to the circumstance of the blackish central line widening con- 

 siderably, become gradually dusky, the feathers there being merely bor- 

 dered with the grayish bufi". The interscapular region, the scapulars 

 and small wing-coverts are shining black with greenish reflections ; they 

 are margined with ferruginous, and near the exterior tips with whitish : 

 the lower part of the back, the rump, and the upper tail-coverts are jet 

 black and without margins. The wings are five inches long, lined with 

 white, which predominates on the under wing-coverts : these are how- 

 ever a little varied with blackish and gray : the primaries are dusky as 

 well as the outer wing-coverts, and are slightly edged with whitish : the 

 shaft of the outer quill is white ; of the others entirely dusky : the first 

 primary is longest, and after the second they decrease rapidly. The 

 tail is two inches to the tip of the lateral feathers, and a quarter of an 

 inch more to the tip of the middle ones, which are longest by that much, 

 and somewhat tapering, and are black edged with rufous, while the 

 others are pale dusky, margined with white all around the tip. The 

 feet are greenish yellow, the bare space above the knee five-eighths of 

 an inch : the tarsus very nearly one inch, and equal to the middle toe ; 

 the outer toe is connected at the very base with the middle by a very 

 small membrane hardly visible in young individuals, which is also the 

 case with T. platyrhynca : the nails are of a blackish horn color. Such 

 is this bird as it appears in the end of summer and early in autumn on 

 the New Jersey coasts, still apparently in its perfect nuptial dress, or 

 nearly so. Mr. Say informs us that all the individuals of the many 

 flocks observed at Engineer Cantonment both in the spring and autumn 

 were of equal size ; and we have also found the sexes to agree in this 

 respect, perhaps more than is usual in other Sandpipers : in the spring 

 dress, according to the same author, the color of the upper part of the 

 bird is much- paler, almost destitute of black, and the feathers margined 

 with pale cinereous. The upper part of the head is always darker than 

 any part of the neck, and margined with ferruginous : the plumage of 

 the neck beneath and the breast does not appear to undergo so much 

 change as that of the upper part of the body. We have not seen the 

 bird in this plumage, but it will be evident to every ornithologist con- 



