SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. 



427 



Its half-webbed feet, however, are sufficient marks of dis- 

 tinction between the two. It arrives and departs with the pre- 

 ceding species ; flies in flocks with the stints, purres, and a few 

 others ; and is sometimes seen at a considerable distance from 

 the sea, on the sandy shores of our fresh-water lakes. On the 

 23d of September I met with a small flock of these birds in 

 Burlington Bay, on Lake Champlain. They are numerous 

 along the sea-shores of New Jersey, but retire to the south on 

 the approach of cold weather. 



This species is six inches long, and twelve in extent ; the 

 bill is black, an inch long, and very slightly bent ; crown and 

 body above, dusky brown, the plumage edged with ferruginous, 

 and tipt with white ; tail and wings, nearly of a length ; sides 

 of the rump, white ; rump and tail coverts, black ; wing-quills 

 dusky black, shafted, and banded with white, much in the 

 manner of the least snipe ; over the eye a line of white ; lesser 

 coverts, tipt with white ; legs and feet, blackish ash, the latter 

 half webbed. Males and females alike in colour. 



These birds varied greatly in their size, some being scarcely 

 five inches and a half in length, and the bill not more than 

 three-quarters ; others measured nearly seven inches in the 

 whole length, and the bill upwards of an inch. In their general 

 appearance they greatly resemble the stints or least snipe ; 

 but unless we allow that the same species may sometimes have 

 the toes half webbed, and sometimes divided to the origin, — 

 and this not in one or two solitary instances, but in whole 

 flocks, which would be extraordinary indeed,— we cannot avoid 

 classing this as a new and distinct species, 



