SCOLOPACID^— THE SNIPE FAMILY. 67 



"Very common summer resident. Arrives early in April and 

 departs in September. Frequents in greatest abundance the 

 borders of marshes and half wild prairies. Quite difficult to 

 approach when it first arrives, but during the breeding season 

 becomes perfectly reckless, and hovef-s over head or follows 

 through the grass within a few yards until it has escorted the 

 intruder well off its domain. The presence of a dog in the 

 vicinity of its nesting place is the signal for a general onslaught 

 by all the birds in the vicinity, which hover over the dog, and 

 with loud cries endeavor to drive it away. Being but little ap- 

 preciated as game it is seldom hunted in this vicinity." 



t 

 • Genus ACTITIS Illiger. 



Actifis IiMGEE, Prodr. 1811, p. 262. Type, by elimination, Tringa hypoleuea Linn. 

 Tringoides Bonap. Sagglo di una dist., etc., 1831, 58. Same type. 



Chab. Upper mandible grooved to the terminal fourth; the biU tapering and rather 

 acute. Cleft of mouth only moderate; the oulmen about five sixths the oommlssure. 

 Feathers extending rather farther on side of lower jaw than upper, the former reaching as 

 faras the beginning ot the nostrils; those of the chin to about their middlp. BiUshorter 

 than the head, straight, equal to the tarsus, which is of the length of middle toe and claw. 

 Bare part ot tibia halt the tarsus. Outer toe webbed to first joint; inner cleft nearly or 

 duite to the base. Tail much rounded, more than half the wing. 



Actitis macularia (Linn.) 



SPOTTED SANDPIPEE. 

 Popular synonyms. Sand Snipe ; Sand Lark ; River Peet- weet or Tip-up ; Eiver Snipe. 



Tringa macularia LiKN. S. N. ed. 12, i, 1766, 249.— WrLS. Am. Orn. vii, 1813, 60, pi. 59, fig. 1. 

 Totanus macularius Temm. 1815.— Nutt. Man. ii, 1834,162.— AuD. Orn. Biog. iv, 1839, 81,pl. 



310; Synop. 1839, 242; B. Am. v, 1842. 303, pi. 342. 

 Tringoides macularius Geat, 1849.— Cass, in Baird's B. N. Am. 1858, 7a').— Baibd, Cat. N. 



Am. B. 1859, No. 543.— OouKS, Key. 1872, 260; Cheek List, 1873, No. 346; 2d ed. 1882, No, 



638; B.N. W. 1874, 501.— Emow: Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, 557.— B. B. &E. Water B. N. 



Am. i, 1884, 301. 

 Actitis macularia Naum. Vog. Deutschl. viii, 1836, 34.— A. O. U. Check List, 1886, No. 



263.-BIDGW. Man. N. Am. B. 1887, 170. 



Hab. The whole of North and Middle America, and South America as far as Brazil; 

 occasional in Europe; no Greenland record. Breeds throughout temperate North 

 America. ' 



Sp. Chab. Small, bill rather longer than the head, straight, slender; long grooves in 

 both mandi bles ; wing rather long, pointed ; tall medium, rounded ; legs rather long ; lower 

 thlrdof the tibia naked; toes long, margined, and flattened underneath, the outer con- 

 nected with the middle toe by a large membrane, the inner very slightly connected to the 

 middle toe. Adult: Upper parts greenish ashy, with a sdmewhat nietallic or bronzed luster 

 and with numerous sagittate, lanceolate, and irregular, mostly transverse, spots of brown- 

 ish black, having the same lustre. Line over the eye and entire under parts white, with 

 numerous circular and oval spots of brownish black over the whcile surface, smaller on the 



