388 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[156.J 1. Totanus semipalmatus. (Temiii.) Semipalmated Tatler. 



Genus, Totanus, Bechst. 



Semipalmated Snipe. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., No. 380, pi. 20, f. 2. Wils., vii., pi. 50, f. 3. 



Chevalier semi-palme (Totanus semipalmatus.) Temm., ii., p. 037- 



Totanus (Cataptrophorus) semipalmatus. Bonap. Syn., No. 259. 



Plate lxvii. 



This bird, which breeds abundantly in the United States, was observed by us 

 in considerable numbers on the shores of some small saline lakes near the 

 Saskatchewan. It does not, perhaps, range farther north in summer than the 

 fifty-sixth parallel. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of a male, killed, 21st June, on the Saskatchewan plains. 



Colour. — Upper plumage brownish-grey, approaching to broccoli-brown, striped faintly 

 on the neck, more conspicuously marked on the head and between the shoulders, and irregu- 

 larly barred on the scapulars, tertiaries, and their coverts, with blackish-brown. Tail coverts 

 white. Tail whitish, thickly mottled with pale greyish-brown, that colour forming the ground 

 of the central feathers. Spurious wing, primary coverts, outer halves of the primaries, the 

 axillary feathers, and under wing coverts, blackish-brown : basal halves of all the primaries 

 and the upper row of under wing coverts white, the posterior primaries tipped with the same ; 

 secondaries and the outer webs of their greater coverts white, marbled with brown. A spotted 

 liver-brown streak on the lores, bounded above by a spotted white one. Eyelids, chin, belly, 

 and vent, white; rest of the under flumage brownish-white, streaked on the throat and trans- 

 versely barred on the breast, shoulders, flanks, and under tail coverts, with clove-brown ; the 

 bars pointed in the middle. — Female coloured like the male. 



Form. — Bill strong, straight, nearly cylindrical from the nostrils ; tip of the upper man- 

 dible bent down. Nasal groove deep, abrupt, half the length of the bill. Wings rather 

 longer than the square tail. Toes moderately long and rather stout, the anterior ones 

 connected by webs, of which the outer one is longest. — The female is an inch longer, but 

 resembles the male in its plumage. 



Dimensions. 



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



Length, total . . . 15 C Length of bill to rictus . 2 CJ Length of middle nail . 3 



„ of tail . . .40 „ of tarsus ..27 „ of hind toe . .0 4 



„ of wing ..83 „ of naked thigh .13 „ of its nail . .0 1^ 



„ of bill above .25 „ of middle toe . 1 3f 



