SOLITARY SANDPIPER, OR TATLER. 311 



be found in the same place a few hours after. Its alighting on trees has often 

 appeared to me as singular as that of Bartram's Snipe and the Semipalmated 

 species. The Solitary Snipe is, however, the most expert at catching insects 

 on the wing, especially the smaller kinds of dragon-flies, which it chases 

 from the sticks on which they alight, and generally seizes before they have 

 flown across the little ponds, which are the favourite place of resort of this 

 species. I have found their stomachs filled with aquatic insects, caterpillars 

 of various kinds, and black spiders of considerable size. 



I consider this bird to be a constant resident in the United States, although 

 it ranges over a great space in summer and winter. Scarcely any difference 

 is observable in the sexes; and I am of opinion that the young acquire their 

 full plumage the first spring. 



Solitary Sandpiper, Tringa solitaria, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 53. 



Totanus chloropygius, Bonap. Syn., p. 325. 



Totanus chloropygids, Green-rump Tatler, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. 



p. 393. 

 Green-rump Tatler, Totanus chloropygius, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 576; vol. v. 



p. 583. 



Male, 81, 1 61 



Distributed from Texas over the United States, breeding in deep woody 

 situations, in the Fur Countries on the bare sand. Columbia river. Partially 

 migratory. 



Adult Male. 



Bill a little longer than the head, very slender, sub-cylindrical, straight, 

 flexible, compressed at the base, the point rather depressed and obtuse. 

 Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge convex, broader at 

 the base, slightly depressed towards the end^ the sides sloping, towards the 

 end convex, the edges soft and obtuse, the tip very slightly deflected. Nasal 

 groove long and narrow, extending to a little beyond the middle of the bill; 

 nostrils basal, linear, pervious. Lower mandible with the angle very long 

 and extremely narrow, the dorsal line straight, the sides convex, with a 

 slight groove in their basal half. 



Head small, oblong, anteriorly narrowed. Eyes large. Neck rather long 

 and slender. Body slender. Feet long and slender; tibia bare nearly half 

 its length, scutellate before and behind; tarsus also scutellate before and 

 behind; hind toe very small and elevated; fore toes rather long, very slender, 

 connected at the base by webs, of which the outer is much larger; second or 

 inner toe considerably shorter than fourth, third longest; all scutellate above, 

 flat and marginate beneath. Claws small, slightly arched, much compressed, 

 rather obtuse, that of middle toe much larger, with the inner edge enlarged. 



