202 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 
features, at once separates it without need of a more extended comparison. The 
larger size, pectoral wash, and black rump and upper tail coverts of A. maculata , 
at once distinguishes it, while the very diminutive proportions of A . minutilla 
render comparison equally unnecessary. Its relationships to the A. Bairdii 
have already been discussed. 
It is a little extraordinary that with regard to so marked and well character- 
ized a Sandpiper as the present, there should have arisen the confusion which 
until recently has prevailed among authors, nearly all referring it to a very dif- 
ferent bird. To use the apt and expressive words of the General Report, it has 
been “ sadly misnamed by American ornithologists.” When in mature plumage 
it bears very little resemblance to the Tringa Schinzii , Brehm., which, according 
to the same authority, is “ merely a smaller variety, or perhaps only smaller 
specimens of the common Tringa alpina - .” This grave error probably 
originated from two causes: first, that Say, in his original description (the first 
notice of the bird by an American writer) designates it as Pelidna cinclus , var. ; 
and secondly, that though the adults are as different as possible, the young of 
the two, as already stated, are nearly identical iu plumage, almost the only dif- 
ference lying in the proportions of the bill and feet; characters which, 
though important and essential, might readily be overlooked in birds of this 
group, in which the colors were similar. This similarity in the young and 
great difference between the adults of the present species and the Tringa alpina , 
var., caused Bonaparte, in his American Ornithology, to fall into a curious 
error. Under the head of Tringa Schinzii , Brehm., he describes the present 
species accurately, properly quoting the Pelidna cinclus , var. of Say ; yet only 
the description of what he considered as the young “ T. Schinzii ” applies to the 
A. Bonapartei . For, speaking of the adult, he says : “ This Sandpiper is well 
known to appear in a summer vesture analogous to that of Tringa alpina , at the 
same season, hut we have never met with an American specimen in that state and 
further on he describes adult European specimens as having “the breast almost 
entirely of a jet black color,” clearly referring to the so-called Tringa Schinzii , 
i. <?., to the smaller variety of the T. alpina. Nuttall, probably following Bona- 
parte, commits precisely the same mistake. Audubon’s Tringa Schinzii is un- 
doubtedly the present species, though the measurements given are rather those 
of A. Bairdii ; and, for reasons stated elsewhere, I am inclined to think that his 
figure of the male was taken from an individual in the peculiar abnormal dusky 
state of plumage already so often adverted to. The descriptions of Tringa 
Schinzii by other American authors, and by those European writers quoted in 
the list of synonyms, all appear to refer to the true Bonapartei. 
The description by Schlegel, in 1844, of Tringa Bonapartei , unmistakeably 
points to the present species, and, as it is the first distinctive specific appella- 
tion, must be employed. Parzudaki, in his Catalogue, very wrongly gives Bo- 
napartei , Sch., as a synonym of Pelidna maculata , (pectoralis of Say.) Scolopax 
pusilla of Gmelin is in all probability the present bird, as particular mention is 
made of the white upper tail coverts ; but from the brevity of the description, 
it is impossible to determine this point satisfactorily. 
Actodkomas (Heteropygia) Cooperi (Baird) Coues. —Cooper’s Sandpiper. 
Tringa Cooperi , Baird, Gen. Rep. 1858, 71 6. 
Sp. char. Largest of the group. Bill considerably longer than the head, ex- 
ceeding the tarsus, straight, rather stout, tip scarcely expanded. Feathers ex- 
tending on side of lower mandible scarcely further than those on the upper. 
Wings long, pointed, first primary decidedly longest ; tertials moderately long 
and rather slender. Tail moderate, slightly but decidedly doubly emarginate, 
the central feathers projecting. Tarsus rather longer than the middle toe ; 
tibia bare for half the length of the tarsus ; toes all long, slender and slightly 
margined. Adult in spring . — Upper parts a nearly uniform light greyish ash, 
