250 
PRiECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^E. 
Trynga tridactyla, Pall. Zoog. Rosso-As. II. 1826, 198. 
Calidris tringoides, Vieill. Gal. Ois. II. 1831, 95, pi. 234. 
Calidris americana, Brehm, Vijg. Deutschl. 1831, 695. 
“ Calidris nigellus, Vieill.” 
Hab. Nearly cosmopolitan, but breeding only in the Arctic and Subarctic districts, in America 
migrating south to Patagonia and Chili. Chiefly littoral, but frequenting also the larger inland 
waters. 
Sp. Char. No hind toe ; front toes moderate or rather long, flattened underneath, distinctly 
margined with a membrane. Bill straight, rather thick ; ridge of upper mandible flattened ; nasal 
groove deep and nearly as long as the upper mandible, not so distinct in the lower ; both mandi- 
bles widened and flattened at the tip ; aperture of the nostril large and covered with a membrane. 
Wing long ; tail short, with the middle feathers longest ; under coverts long as the tail ; legs mod- 
erate ; lower third of the tibia naked. Lower parts white, immaculate on the belly, sides, flanks, 
axillars, anal region, and crissum ; greater wing-coverts broadly tipped with white, and inner 
primaries white at base of outer webs. Adult in summer : Above, light rufous, broken by large 
spots of black, the feathers mostly tipped with whitish. Head, neck, throat, and jugulum, pale 
cinnamon-rufous, speckled below and streaked above with blackish. Adult in winter : Above, 
very pale pearl-gray (the lesser wing-coverts darker anteriorly), relieved only by faint darker 
shaft-streaks of the feathers. Throat and jugulum immaculate pure white. Adult in spring: 
Above, light grayish, with large black spots (streaks on the crown), here and there mixed with 
rufous; jugulum speckled with dusky on a vdiite ground. Young: Above, pale gray, spotted 
with black and whitish, the latter on tips of the feathers ; jugulum immaculate white, faintly 
tinged with dull buff. “ Bill and feet black ; iris brpwn” (Audubon). 
Total length, about 7.75-8.00 inches; wing, 4.70-5.00; culmen, .95-1.00 ; tarsus, .90-1.05 ; 
middle toe, .55-.60. 
In the universality of its distribution the Sanderling is probably not surpassed 
by any known species. It is found on both the Atlantic and Pacific coast of North 
America and in the interior. It wanders in fall and winter to the West Indies, 
Mexico, Central, and over the greater portion of South, America. It is in like man- 
ner found in the breeding-season scattered over Northern Europe and Asia, and from 
August to June it occurs at various periods in Central and Southern Asia and 
Europe, Africa to Natal, Japan, and on several of the islands lying to the south 
and southeast of Asia. 
This is a bird of the highest Arctic distribution, having been taken by Captain 
Hall’s party, in the “ Polaris ” Expedition, on the west coast of Greenland. It was 
also observed by Mr. Feilden, of the Expedition of 1875-1876, in Grinnell Land on 
the 5th of June, 1876, flying in company with Knots and Turnstones ; at this date it 
was feeding, like the other Waders, on the buds of Saxifraga oppositifolia. It was by 
no means abundant alone' the coast of that region, but Mr. Feilden observed several 
