RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 



321 



Red-back. Its residence here is but transient, chiefly in April 

 and May, while passing to the arctic regions to breed, and 

 in September and October, when on its return southward to 



and, on any danger approaching, runs round, uttering, at quick inter- 

 vals, Ms shrill monotonous whistle. The female, when raised from the 

 nest, flutters off for a few yards, and then assumes the same manners 

 with the male. The young sit and squat among the grass or reeds, 

 and at that time the parents will come within two yards of the person 

 in search of them. The purre seems extensively distributed over both 

 the European and American continents. I have not, however, received 

 it from the Asiatic side, or any part of India, where so many of this 

 tribe are commonly found. 



The genus Pelincla has been instituted and adopted by several 

 naturalists for the purre, the little sandpiper, and a few others, with 

 the exclusion of the pigmy curlew and knots. Though an advocate, 

 generally, for subdivisions, wherever any character can be seized upon, 

 I cannot reconcile that of these birds. I can fix upon no character 

 which is not equally applicable ; and the habits, the changes of plum- 

 age, and the form, are so similar, that, with the exception of modifica- 

 tions essential to every group, they compose one whole. The differences 

 in form will be noticed under the respective species ; and, for the present) 

 I prefer retaining these birds under the generic name of Tringa. 



The following sjDecies, not noticed by Wilson, have been added to the 

 American list by different ornithologists :— 



T. JSchinzii, Breh. On the authority of Bonaparte, identical with 

 the Pelincla cinclus var. of Say's expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 

 and met with by the Arctic Expedition on the borders of the lakes 

 which skirt the Saskatchewan plains. So nearly allied to T. alpina, 

 as to be confounded with it ; differs in size, and the distribution of 

 markings. 



Tringa pectoralis, Bonap. ; Pelincla pectoralis of Say. This seems to 

 have been first noticed in the valuable notes to Major Laing's expedition 

 to the Rocky Mountains. The following description is there given by 

 Say:- 



P. pectoralis, Say. Bill, black, reddish yellow at base ; upper 

 mandible, with a few indented punctures near the tip ; head above, 

 black, plumage margined with ferruginous, a distinct brown line from 

 the eye to the upper mandible ; cheeks and neck beneath, cinereous, 

 very slightly tinged with rufous, and lineate with blackish ; orbits and 

 lineover the eye, white ; chin, white ; neck above, dusky, plumage 

 margined with cinereous ; scapulars, interscapulars, and wing-coverts, 

 black, margined with ferruginous, and near the exterior tips with 

 whitish ; primaries, dusky, slightly edged with whitish ; outer quill- 



VOL. II. X 



