NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 
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ously reddish margins, that the original color is seen only on the rather broad 
tips of the feathers. On the scapulars the reddish deepens into bright sienna, 
which borders the feathers evenly, showing little or no disposition towards the 
scolloping so conspicuous in Bairdii and minutilla. Some of the scapulars, how- 
ever, are simply bordered with the prevailing ashy, and ail are tipped with it. 
The long narrow tertials are sooty brown, fading into ashy on the edges. 
The secondaries and greater coverts are greyish ash, the former much the 
lighter, both edged and broadly tipped with pure white. The lesser coverts are 
dusky brown, edged with lighter. The primaries are dusky, nearly black on 
their outer vanes and at the tips, their shafts brownish at base, gradually fading 
into pure white, which again darkens with black at the tip. The innermost 
primaries are quite conspicuously edged with white. The rump is dark sooty 
brown. The upper tail coverts are white, the outer series with sagittate 
dusky spots. The central tail feathers are sooty black, with narrow lighter 
margins ; the rest a very clear light ashy, margined and tipped with pure white. 
The under parts are white ; the throat, jugulum and breast with a scarcely ap- 
preciable wash of very light ashy, and very thickly streaked with well defined, 
narrow, linear-oblong marks of brownish black. These streaks, reduced to 
their minimum, extend as minute points nearly or quite to the bill, and, chiefly 
as narrow shaft lines, extend along the sides under the wings to the tail coverts, 
the dusky spots on the upper being the continuation of them. The other under 
parts are pure white and immaculate. The legs and feet are black. 
Young. — The young differs very materially from the adult. The upper parts 
generally are of a nearly uniform dark greyish ash, the feathers with scarcely 
lighter margins. The black central fields and the reddish margins soon appear 
at irregular intervals, giving to the upper parts a more or less variegated ap- 
pearance. The reddish is seen mostly on the scapulars. The wings and wing 
coverts are exactly like those of the adults, in this respect showing a remarka- 
ble deviation from the usual rule among the species of this genus, where an 
evidence of immaturity is to be found in the light ferruginous edgings of all 
the lesser wing coverts.* The central pair of the upper tail coverts are wholly 
dusky, and, in addition to the sagittate spots on the outer series, the interme- 
diate ones are sometimes marked in the same manner. The wash on the jugu- 
lum is considerably more conspicuous than in the adult, but at the same time 
it is much more restricted, and the streaks are fewer and very indistinct. It 
extends, however, along the sides much as in the adults. This state of plumage 
is identical with that exhibited by the Tringa alpina at the same age in all re- 
spects, except those of the reddish lesser wing coverts and black upper tail 
coverts of the latter species. Though the adults of the two species are very 
different, this close resemblance of the young was probably one cause of the 
two birds being confounded by American writers. Between the plumage of the 
adult and young, as characterized above, there are to be found birds of every 
intermediate stage. A specimen shot in the middle of August has already the 
markings of adult and young in nearly equal proportions, while a winter speci- 
men agrees in almost every respect with the adult in breeding plumage described 
above. This species is also found in the peculiar dusky state of plumage, where 
all the features are very dark and scarcely relieved by ashy or reddish margins, 
already adverted to in the case of Actodromas maculata , Bairdii and minutilla. 
It is most probable that all the species of the genus are liable to this curious 
variation. 
The relationships of this species are decidedly closest with the A. Cooperi , 
both having clearly the same form, and the pattern of coloration being very 
similar. The greatly superior size, however, of the latter, independently of the 
variegated upper tail coverts, different character of the spots beneath, and other 
* The same feature is seen in Pelidna alpina and Americana, a circumstance which 
would seem to indicate that the two genera are closely allied, as is indeed the case. 
1861 .] 
