NATURAL SCIENCES OE PHILADELPHIA. 
199 
comparison unnecessary. The differences between the present species and the 
A. Cooperi will be pointed out under the head of the latter. 
In addition to the characters given on the diagnosis, the following remarks 
may serve to illustrate the peculiarities of the present species, with its varia- 
tions. While the difference in size between the largest and smallest specimens 
before me is very considerable, amounting to over half an inch in the wing, and 
more than an inch in entire length, the bill and feet vary but little in length 
and proportion. The difference in the length of the bill is but about one-tenth 
of an inch, and of the tarsus and toes it is less. The three are about equal, and 
from 1T0 to 1-20 of an inch in length. The proportions of the quills seem con- 
stant, the first being decidedly longest. The tertials vary quite remarkably in 
length, in some specimens nearly equalling the longest primary, and in others 
being over an inch and a half shorter ; they usually, however, reach to within 
less than an inch of the tips of the wings. The feathers, which encroach on the 
side of the lower mandible but little beyond those on the upper, present an acute 
angle, their upper outline being parallel with the commissure, and the lower 
sloping rapidly backward. The crown is much darker than the hind neck, the 
transition being marked and abrupt. The upper parts vary greatly in the 
color of the margins of the feathers, it being of every intermediate shade from 
a very dull ashy with scarcely a tinge ef reddish to very bright chestnut. In 
the latter case, the tips of the feathers are nearly pure white ; but this pattern 
of coloration is mostly confined to the young bird, which, as is also the case 
with A. minutilla , is of actually brighter colors than when adult. An evidence 
of immaturity is always to be seen in the light ferruginous edgings of the 
lesser wing coverts, which imthe adults are merely light ashy.- The same fea- 
ture characterizes the young minutilla , and is also found in the European A. 
minuta. While the pectoral wash is always deep and decided, its color varies 
considerably. In the adults it is usually a very dark ash, while in the young 
of the year it has alight ochreous or buff tinge. In the former it fades gradually 
into the white of the chin, while on the latter it forms a well defined more or 
less triangular white patch. The line of demarcation on the breast is always 
sharply defined. In some specimens there are dusky shaft lines along the 
sides quite to the vent. This species also sometimes exhibits the peculiar 
dusky state of plumage found in the minutilla and Bairdii. 
Contrary to the general rule among the Sandpipers, there has been very little 
confusion among authors with regard to this species, and its synonomy is de- 
finite and well ascertained. The first notice of it by an American author was 
in 1823, in Long’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains, where it was named 
Pelidna pectoralis , by Say. This specific appellation, certainly a most appro- 
priate one, is that which has been in general use among authors, the bird being 
as usual referred to both Pelidna and Tringa. It is, however, very different from 
either, and is in every essential a true Actodromas. “ Le tringa macule,” 
Tringa maculata of Yieillot, (1819,) unquestionably refers to the present species, 
and the name has therefore priority over pectoralis. Lichtenstein, in 1823, 
named the species T. campestris , which of course is also superseded by maculata 
Vieill. Degland, in 1849, presented the bird as Tringa dominicensis, the name 
being derived from the T. cinclus dominicensis of Brisson, (1760.) This author, 
however, was no binomalist, and has hence no claim to bestow names in such 
a system. 
Actodromas (Heterqpygia) Bonapartei (Schl.) Cass.— Bonaparte’s Sand- 
piper. 
? Scolopax pusilla, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. 1788, i. 663. 
Pelidna cinclus , var. Say, Long’s Exped. 1823, i. 172. 
Tringa Schinzii , u Brehm.” Bonaparte, Syn. 1828, (nec Brehm. quse T. alpina, 
var. ? fide Gen. Rep.) Swainson. F. B. A. 1831, ii. 384. Bonaparte, Am. 
Orn. 1833, iv. 69. Nuttall, Manual, 1834, ii. 109. Audubon, Orn. Biog. 
1861.] 
