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PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 
of sucli peculiar characters, requires comparison with no other sandpiper. 
Actodromas minutilla has much the same pattern of coloration, and sometimes 
approaches it in size ; but the other differences are too great to allow of their 
being confounded. 
The bill of this species varies most remarkably in length, the difference 
being four-tenths of an inch ; it is always, however, quite stout. The tibia and 
tarsus vary somewhat, but within narrow limits. The proportions of the 
quills vary, but the first is usually longest. The tail is very decidedly doubly 
emarginate, the difference between the outer and next feather being nearly 
one-tenth of an inch ; the third is the shortest. The upper tail coverts are 
very long, as are also the tertials. The winter and immature plumage shows 
little or none of the reddish, the feathers being mostly ashy with lighter bor- 
ders. The young in July and August have scarcely any traces of the spots 
beneath, being almost entirely white, with a light buff wash across the breast. 
There is also much more white on the margins of the feathers of the upper 
parts. 
With the exception of Tringa canutus and Ancylocheilus subarquata , there is 
perhaps no North American Sandpiper which has received such a variety of 
names as the present. Fortunately, however, the proper name to be employed 
is now pretty definitely determined. The subject of the generic appellation 
has already been discussed under Ereunetes, and it now only remains to settle 
the question of the specific denomination. The first notice of the species is in 
1760, by Brisson, who, in his Ornithologia, describes and figures a Tringa cin- 
clus Dominicensis minor , which can be no other than the present bird. The 
description applies well, and the figure plainly shows the webbing of the toes, 
a feature entirely peculiar among the smaller Tringece. It was upon this bird 
that Linnaeus, in 1766, based his Tringa pusilla, which name being the first 
applied to the bird in the binomial system, has priority over all others, and 
must be employed. In 1811, at the time of the founding of the genus Ereunetes, 
of Illiger, that author named the bird E. petrificatus. Cassin, in the General 
Report, though admitting that T. pusilla , Linn., is really this species, does 
not change Illiger’ s specific appellation, concerning which all doubt is removed 
by the actual examination of the type specimen. Very recently, however, 
in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy, he has given the bird as 
Ereunetes pusillus, Cass., the name by which it should be known. In 1813 
Wilson named the bird T. semipalmata , which designation being a most appro- 
priate one, has been in general use among modern ornithologists, though re- 
ferred by different authors successively to Tringa , Heteropoda and Ereunetes. 
The Pelidna Brissoni, of Lesson, who quotes T. pusilla , Linn., is probably the 
present bird. 
The remarkable variations in size and in the depth of the bill to which this 
bird is subject, have given rise to several nominal species. The Hemipalama 
largest and smallest of these, amounts to nearly two-tenths of an inch ; and in length of 
bill to about four-tenths , the latter being more than half the entire length of the shorter 
bill. The shortest bills appear fully as stout as the longest. These differences do not 
seem to depend upon locality, being found in specimens from the same region, while 
specimens from widely separated localities are absolutely identical. Thus, an excessively 
short-billed bird from Maryland is identical with one from Nebraska, while very large 
and long-billed specimens from Georgia, Utah and the Pacific coast do not differ appre- 
ciably. Specimens, however, from the same locality, and undoubtedly of the same species, 
exhibit much variation in size, length of bill and tarsus, amount of red or white above, 
and character of the spots beneath ; so that without a full series of the common Atlantic 
bird before me, and especially in the uncertainty, if two or more species be admitted, to 
which one the name pusilla belongs, I have preferred to consider them as specifically 
identical. Still, it would not be surprising if a careful and extended examination of a large 
series of Ereunetes from all localities on the continent should substantiate two or even 
three good species : Tringa semipalmata , of Wilson, Hemipalama minor, of Gundlach, and 
Heteropoda mauri, of Bonaparte. 
