SYMPHEMIA. 



167 



Genus SYMPHEMIA Eafinesque. (Page 148, pi. L., fig. 3.) 



Species. 



Largest of the family (except species of the genera Numenius and Limosa), the 

 wing measuring 8.00 or more ; quills blackish, with nearly the basal half white 

 producing a very conspicuous patch on the spread wing. Summer adult : Above 

 brownish gray, irregularly varied with dusky; lower parts white, tinged with 

 grayish on fore-neck and buff along sides, the former, with chest, streaked or 

 spotted with dusky, the latter barred with the same. Winter plumage : Above plain 

 ash-gray ; beneath immaculate white, the fore-neck shaded with grayish. Young : 

 Above brownish gray, the feathers margined with buff or pale ochraceous ; sides 

 much tinged with the same, and finely mottled transversely with grayish. 

 Downy young : Above dull grayish white or pale brownish gray, tinged here and 

 there with pale brown, coarsely and irregularly marbled with dusky; fore-part 

 and sides of forehead plain dull whitish ; sides of head, with entire lower parts, dull 

 white, the lores crossed, from eye nearly to bill, by a very distinct line of dusky; 

 behind the eye two dusky lines, a shorter and broader one running from eye into 

 the dusky mottling of occiput, a longer and narrower one commencing immediately 

 beneath, and running back into dusky mottling on nape. Length about 15.00- 

 17.00, wing 7.50-9.00, culmen 1.90-2.60, tarsus 1.95-2.85, middle toe 1.35-1.40. Eggs 

 2.13 X 1-53, pale buffy, varying from a brownish to a grayish olive shade, spotted 

 with various shades of brown (usually rich madder-brown or vandyke), and pur- 

 plish gray. Sab. Temperate North America; south, in winter, to West Indies, 

 Brazil, etc. ; accidental in Europe 258. S. semipalmata (Gmel.). Willet. 



Genus HETERACTITIS Stejneger. (Page 148, pi. XLV., fig. 3.) 



Species. 



Common Characters. — Upper parts uniform, or nearly uniform, grayish ; lower 

 parts white, more or less extensively barred with dusky in summer, washed with 

 gray across chest and sides in winter, the young with gray of sides, etc., faintly 

 mottled with whitish. 



a 1 . Nasal groove (measured from loral feathers) two-thirds as long as the exposed 



culmen ; upper tail-coverts uniform gray, or with merely a narrow edging 



of whitish. 



Summer adult : Above uniform plumbeous-gray ; lower parts white, 



shaded across chest and along sides with plumbeous, the fore-neck 



streaked, and other parts (including belly and lower tail-coverts) barred, 



with dusky. Winter plumage : Similar, but without any bars on lower 



parts. Young : Similar to winter plumage, but scapulars, tertials, and 



upper tail-coverts indistinctly spotted along edges with white, and 



plumbeous of sides, etc., faintly mottled with the same. Length 10.50- 



11.30, wing 6.50-7.30, culmen 1.50-1.60, tarsus 1.25-1.35, middle toe 1.00- 



