NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 
233 
Semipalmated Sandpipers and the Ring Plovers, and in common with other 
small species are known by the general name of “Peeps.” Those that I shot 
were not so excessively fat as the A. maculata and Ereunetes pusillus commonly 
are at the same season. 
Ereunetes pusillus (Briss.) Cassin. — Semipalmated Sandpiper. “Peep.” 
Tringa cinclus dominicensis minor , Brisson, Ornith. 1760, v. 222, pi. xxv. fig. 2, 
[haud dubie.] 
Tringa pusilla, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. 1766, i. 252, fide G-en. Rep. 
? Tringa pusilla, Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. 1819, xxxiv. 452, [ad T. cincl. dom. min. 
Briss. refert.] 
Ereunetes petrificatus, Illiger, Prod. 1811, 262. Cassin, Gen. Rep. 1858, 724. 
Tringa semipalmata , Wilson, Am. Orn. 1813, vii. 131, pi. lxiii. fig. 4 ; id. Ord. 
Ed. 1829, iii. 132, pi. lxiii. fig. 4 ; id. Brewer, Ed. 1840, 542, fig. 225 ; ibid. 
Syn. 725. Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. 1819, xxxiv. 462 ; Diet. Class d’Hist. Nat. 
1822, ii. 251. Swainson, F. B. A. 1831, ii. 381. Audubon, Orn. Biog. 
1839, v. p. 110, pi. 408 ; id. Syn. 1839, 236 ; id. Birds Amer. 1842, v. 277, 
pi. 336. Giraud, Birds L. I. 1844, 239. Newberry, P. R. R. Surv. 1857, 
vi. 100. 
Ereunetes semipalmatas, Cabanis, Schomburgk’s Reise, iii. 758, fide Gen. Rep. 
Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. 1856, fide Gen. Rep. Cabanis, Journ. 1856, 
419, fide Gen. Rep. 
Tringa ( Hemipalama ) semipalmata , Bonaparte, Obs. Wils. 1825, num. 212 ; ii. 
Speech. Comp. 1827, 62. 
Tringa ( Heteropoda ) semipalmata , Nuttall, Man. Orn. 1834, ii. 136. 
Hemipalama semipalmata, Lambeye, Av. Cubae, 1850, 96. 
Hemipalama minor , Lambeye, Av. Cubae, 1850, 97. 
Heteropoda semipalmata , Bonaparte, Comp. List, 1838, 49. Dekay, N. Y. 
Fauna, 1844, 236, pi. 86, fig. 195. Gray, Genera, 1849, iii. 580. 
? Heteropoda mauri , Bonaparte, Comp. List, 1838, 49. 
Ereunetes mauri , Cabanis, Journ. 1856, 419, fide Gen. Rep. 
Tringa brevirostris , Spix, Aves Bras. 1825, ii. 76, fide Gen. Rep. 
? Pelidna Brissoni, Lesson, Man. d’Ornith. 1828, ii. 277, [T. pusillum, Linn, 
citat.] 
Ereunetes pusillus , Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. 1860, xiii. 195. Coues, Monog. 
Tring. N. A., in Pr. A. N. S. Ph. July, 1861, 177. 
The statements made under the head of Actodromas minutilla, tending to 
demonstrate that Tringa pusilla of Linnaeus is not the bird given under that 
name by Wilson, also prove that the name really belongs to the species now 
under consideration. As there stated, pusilla was applied by Linnaeus in 1766 
to the bird figured and described by Brisson, (Ornith. 1760, v. p. 222, pi. xxv. 
fig-2,) under the appellation of “ La petite Alouette-de-mer de S. Dominque,” 
Tringa cinclus Dominicensis minor. The description applies well, and the figure 
plainly shows the webbing of the toes, a feature which exclusively character- 
izes this species among the smaller Sandpipers. There being no reasonable 
doubt, therefore, of what pusilla really refers to, it must, according to the laws 
of nomenclature, take precedence over both petrificatus of Illiger, and semipal- 
maius of Wilson. Cassin restores the name in the Proceedings of the Acade- 
my of Natural Sciences, above cited, there calling the bird Ereunetes pusillus , 
though in the General Report he retains the specific name of petrificatus be- 
stowed by Illiger in 1811. 
< The webbed feet of this bird were very early made the grounds for generic 
distinction from Tringa , to which they wouid fully entitle it, even were no 
other characters involved. But though several genera have been proposed 
for it, fortunately there is not the slightest difficulty as to the proper one to 
be employed. Heteropoda of Nuttall, (1834, ) and Hemipalama of Bonaparte, 
(1825,) must both yield to Ereunetes petrificatus , which, according to the Gene- 
1861.] 
