124 



LITTLE SANDPIPER. 



This variety of the ringed plover is seven inches long, and 

 fourteen in extent ; the bill is reddish yellow for half its length, 

 and black at the extremity ; the front and whole lower parts, 

 pure white, except the side of the breast, which is marked 

 with a curving streak of black, another spot of black bounding 

 the front above ; back and upper parts, very pale brown, 

 inclining to ashy white, and intermixed with white ; wings, 

 pale brown ; greater coverts, broadly tipt with white ; interior 

 edges of the secondaries, and outer edges of the primaries, 

 white, and tipt with brown ; tail, nearly even, the lower half 

 white, brown towards the extremity, the outer feather pure 

 white, the next white, with a single spot of black ; eye, black 

 and full, surrounded by a narrow ring of yellow ; legs, reddish 

 yellow ; claws, black ; lower side of the wings, pure white. 



LITTLE SANDPIPER {Tringa pusilla.) 



PLATE XXXVII.— Fig. 4. 



Lath. Syn. v. p. 184. 32. — Arct. Zool. ii. No. 397. — Cinclus dominicensis minor. 

 Brlss. v. p. 222. 13. t. 25. f. 2.— Turt. Syst. p. 410.— Peak's Museum, No. 

 4138. 



TRINGA MINUTILLA ?— Vieillot.* 



Tringa pusilla, Bonap. Synop. p. 319. 



This is the least of its tribe in this part of the world, and in 

 its mode of flight has much more resemblance to the snipe 

 than to the sandpiper. It is migratory, departing early in 

 October for the south. It resides chiefly among the sea 

 marshes, and feeds among the mud at low water ; springs 

 with a zigzag irregular flight, and a feeble twit. It is not 

 altogether confined to the neighbourhood of the sea, for I have 

 found several of them on the shores of the Schuylkill, in the 

 month of August. In October, immediately before they go 



* The Prince of Musignano considers this species peculiar to America ; 

 that it is different from the T. minuta and Teviminckii of Europe, and 

 that it is not the Linnsean T. pusilla. If the latter opinion be correct, 

 pusilla cannot be retained, and I have added with a query the name given 

 to it by Vieillot. — Ed. 



