SCOLOPACIDJi; — THE SNIPE FAMILY. 65 



and spotted and barred on the back, etc., with blackish; beneath, white, tinged with ashy 

 on toreneck and witii buff along sides, the former, with jugulum, spotted with dusky, and 

 the latter barred with the same ; upper tail-ooverts white ; tail ashy, more or less distinctly 

 mottled transversely with a deeper shade of the same ; wlng-ooverts plain ash-gray ; axil- 

 lars and lining of wing plain sootyTjlaok. Winter plumage: Above,plainash-gray; beneath, 

 immaculate dull white, the toreneck shaded with grayish. 'Young: Above, brownish gray, 

 the leatiers margined with pale oohraoeous: sides much tinged with the same, and finely 

 mottled transversely with grayish. Bill black; legs and feet grayish. In life, "bill light 

 blue, dusky toward end; iris brown; feet light blue, claws black." (Audubon.) 



Total length, about 15.00-17.00 inches; extent, 25.00-30.00; wing, 8.00-9.00; culmen, 2.30-2.60; 

 tarsus, 2.40-2.85; middle toe, 1.35-1.40. 



"The Willet," says Dr. Brewer, "is one of the most extensively 

 distributed' of North American 'birds. It is not only found along 

 the entire Atlantic coast from Nova Spotia to Florida, and 

 along the entire Gulf coast, but is equally abundant on the 

 Pacific and through nearly all the marshy regions of the in- 

 terior; it also occurs throughout Central and South America 

 as far south as the Pampas, whe»e it breeds in large numbers." 



"Mr. Nelson refers to this species as being a rare summer resi- 

 dent in the marshes and on the wet prairies of northwestern 

 Illinois, where it arrives the last of April, leaving by the first 

 of October. The sa.me writer afterward found it abundant on 

 the shores of Salt Lake, in company with Avocets, where its 

 clamor made it a perfect nuisance to the sportsman. Captain 

 Bendire also noticed it as an abundant summer resident in 

 southeastern Oregon, where he procured several sets of its eggs, 

 which began to be laid about the 10th of May. These birds 

 were quite as abundant in the higher mountain valleys, at an 

 altitude of six thousand feet, as they were in the Iqwer regions, 

 apparently frequenting aU marshy localities. Dr. Bryant found 

 this to be ah abundant species in the Bahamas, where it was 

 also resident, breeding in all suitable looahties, and being 

 known as the 'Diick Snipe.'" (Brewer.) 



Genus BAB.TR AMI A Lesson. 



5ar«ram.io Lesson, Traite d'Orn. 1831, 553. Type, B. laticauda JjESS.,=Tringa longi- 



cauda Beohst. 

 ' Chab. Upper mahdlble grooved laterally to within the terminal fourth, the lower not 

 quite so far. Culmen concave to near the tip, where it Is sliglitly decurved; gonys straight. 

 Mouth deeply cleft, almost as far back as the anterior canthus of the eye. The culmen only 

 about two thirds the commissure, shorter than the head or tarsus, and about equal to middle 

 toe, without claw. Feathers extending much farther forward on the upper jaw than on the 

 lower, although those of chin reach nearly to end of nostrils. Tarsus one and one half 

 times middle toe and claw; the bare part of tibia not quite equal to the middle toe above; 

 outer toe united at base as far as first joint; web of inner toe very short. Tail long, gradu- 

 ated, more than half the wings. 



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