SOLITARY SANDPIPER, OR TATLER. 309 



extent of wings 13§; wing from flexure 4^; tail 2; bill along the ridge 1; 

 tarsus yf ; hind toe and claw y|; middle toe and claw l-fj. 



Female. 



There is hardly any difference between the sexes. 



The young in winter have the bill black at the end, dusky olive above, 

 yellowish beneath; the feet yellowish flesh-colour. The lower parts are 

 brownish-white, without spots; the upper of the same brownish-olive as in 

 the adult, but the head and hind neck destitute of streaks, and the rest with 

 narrower and more numerous dusky bars. 



The tongue is 10 twelfths long, slender, tapering to a point, grooved 

 above, sagittate and papillate at the base. The roof of the mouth with a 

 single row of papilla?, posteriorly divided into two series. (Esophagus 3 

 inches and 8 twelfths long, its diameter 2 twelfths, and nearly uniform. 

 Proventriculus -J inch long, 3^ twelfths in diameter. Stomach elliptical, 8J 

 twelfths long, 6^ twelfths in breadth; its lateral muscles strong, the ten- 

 dinous spaces oblong; the cuticular lining with large longitudinal rugae, and 

 of a deep red colour. The contents of the stomach in this individual were 

 remains of marine insects, and quartz sand. Intestine 10 inches long, its 

 diameter varying from 1-^ twelfths to 1 twelfth; it enlarges near the rectum 

 to 2 twelfths. Rectum 1 inch and 1 twelfth; coeca 1 inch and 1 twelfth, 

 their diameter f of a twelfth. 



The trachea is 2 inches and 8 twelfths long, its diameter from 2 twelfths 

 to 1 twelfth; its rings 105, feeble and unossified. The lateral muscles ex- 

 tremely feeble; sterno-tracheals moderate; a single pair of inferior laryngeal 

 muscles. 



SOLITARY SANDPIPER, OR TATLER. 



-f ToTANUS SOLITARIUS, Wils. 



PLATE CCCXLIII.— Male and Female. 



The only nest of this bird that I ever met with was placed in an elevated 

 part of the woods near Bayou Sara, on the margin of a small pond scarcely 

 ten yards broad, overgrown with low bushes, and cumbered with fallen 

 branches of trees. It was formed of grass and withered leaves, arranged 



Vol. V. 44 



