38 



BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



256. Totanus solitarius (WiLS.). 



Solitary Sandpiper. 



DESCRIPTION. {Plate 10.) 



Bill rather longer than the head, straight, slender, compressed; both mandibles 

 with narrow grooves; wing long, pointed; tail medium or rather short, rounded; 

 legs rather long, slender; lower half of the tibia naked ; toes long, the outer united 

 to the middle by a small membrane, flattened underneath, marginated ; upper parts 

 greenish-brown, with numerous small circular and irregular spots of ashy-white; 

 upper tail coverts darker; under parts white; breast and neck before with numer- 

 ous longitudinal lines of greenish-brown ; sides, axillaries, and under wing coverts 

 white, with numerous transverse narrow bands of dark greenish-brown ; under tail 

 coverts white, with a few transverse bands of dark-brown ; quills brownish-black, 

 with a slight bronzed or reddish lustre on the primaries ; two middle feathers of the 

 tail greenish-brown ; other feathers of the tail pure-white, with about five transverse 

 bands of brownish-black; bill and legs dark greenish-brown ; iris brown. 



Total length, about 8 to 8 inches; wing, 5 ; tail, 2 ; bill, 1| ; tarsus, 1| inches. 



Iln,!). North America, breeding occasional!} 7 in the northern United States, more 

 commonly northward, and migrating southward as far as Brazil and Peru. 



The Solitary Sandpiper, unlike other of the Sandpipers occuring 

 in this region, appears to have a special fondness for stagnant pools 

 in and about the woods. During its spring and fall passage through 

 Pennsylvania it is common, frequenting at all times muddy borders 

 of ponds, pools and sloughs. This species seldom arrives in this State 

 before April 25. About the first week in May you find them singly, 

 in pairs, and occasionally in flocks, numbering sometimes as many as 

 eight or even twelve individuals. After the 20th of May you rarely 

 see a Solitary Sandpiper until the last week in September. In Wil- 

 son's Ornithology, the following mention is made of the species: ic I 

 have made many long and close searches for the nest of this bird 

 without success. They regularly breed on Pocono mountain, between 

 Easton and Wilkes-Barre, in Pennsylvania, arriving there early in May 

 and departing in September." In Cumberland county the Messrs. 

 Baird record it as a native species. Wilson also says that these birds 

 inhabit the watery solitudes of our highest mountains during the 



