131 



SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER. 

 TRINGA SEMIPALMATA. 

 [Plate LXIII.— Fig. 4.] 



P£Ai.e's Museum, JV'o. 4023. 



THIS is one of the smallest of its tribe; and seems to have 

 been entirely overlooked, or confounded with another which it 

 much resembles (Tringa pusilla), and with whom it is often found 

 associated. 



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

 tion between the two. It arrives and departs with the preceding 

 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 twenty-third 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, shaft- 

 ed 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 color. 



These birds varied greatly in their size, some being scarcely 

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



