GRALLATORES. 383 



Dimensions 

 Of the male. 



Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. Inch. Lin. 



Length, total ..80 Length of bill to rictus . 1 1 J Length of middle nail . .0 2 



„ of tail ..23 ,, of tarsus ... 10 ,, of hind toe and nail lj 



,, of wing ..49 ,, of middle toe . 10| Extent of wing . . 17 

 „ of bill, above . 1 2 



The female is a little larger, and her bill, on an average, measures a quarter of an inch 

 more than that of the male. 



[151] 5. Tringa alpina. (Pennant.) The American Dunlin. 



Genus, Tringa. Brtss. 



Dunlin (Tringa alpina,), Penn., Arct. Zool., ii., p. 476, No. 391. Summer. 



Purre (Tringa cinclus), Idem, p. 475, No. 390. Winter. 



Red-backed Sandpiper (Tringa alpina), Wilson, vii. p. 25, pi. 5C, f. 2. 



The Purre (Tringa cinclus), Idem, pi. 57, f. 3. 



Becasseau brunnette ou variable (Tringa variabilis), Temm., ii., p. 612 ? 



Tringa variabilis (Dunlin), Sab., Suppt. Parry's First Voy., p. cc. Sab. (J.), Frankl. Journ., p. C86. 



Richardson, Append. Parry's Second Voy., p. 353. 

 Tringa alpina, Bonap., Cat., No. 248. 

 Seekee-araksioo. Esquimaux. 



This bird, which breeds plentifully on the Arctic coasts of America, was 

 killed by us on the Saskatchewan plain in its passage northwards, and in autumn 

 on the shores of Hudson's Bay. Its eggs are oil-green, marked with irregular 

 spots of liver-brown, of different sizes and shades, confluent at the obtuse end. 

 They are 15^ lines long, and 11+ across where broadest, the ends differing 

 greatly in size. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a specimen killed on the Saskatchewan. 



Colour. — Ground of the upper plumage, front of the neck and sides of the breast dark 

 liver-brown, with narrow lateral borders of greyish-brown on the head and neck ; broader 

 tips and lateral blotches of yellowish-brown and ferruginous on the scapulars and back ; and 

 broad grey borders on the lower part of the neck and sides of the breast. Rump and tail 

 coverts pitch black, very slightly fringed with ferruginous. Central pair of tail feathers 

 blackish-brown ; lateral ones pale broccoli-brown or brownish-grey, all with narrow whitish 

 edgings. Wings hair-brown ; centres of the lesser coverts, the greater coverts, and quills, 

 blackish-brown ; lesser quills and greater coverts narrowly tipped with white ; greater quills 

 fringed towards the base with the same, and the shaft of the outer primary, and of several 

 of the posterior ones, white. Belly, flanks, under tail coverts, inner wing coverts, and thigh 

 feathers, pure white. Bill and legs black. 



