SANDERLING SANDPIPER. 287 
moderate length, measuring 91 inches, its average diameter II twelfths. 
The coeca II inches long, their greatest diameter § of a twelfth. 
The trachea is l x 8 2 inches long, flattened, unossified, II twelfths in dia- 
meter at the top, diminishing to 1 twelfth ; the number of rings about 105. 
Bronchial half-rings 15. 
SANDERLING SANDPIPER. 
Tringa arenaria, Bonap. 
PLATE CCOXXXVIIL— Male and Female. 
Although the Sanderling extends its rambles along our Atlantic shores, 
from the eastern extremities of Maine to the southernmost Keys of the 
Floridas, it is only an autumnal and winter visiter. It arrives in the more 
Eastern Districts about the 1st of August, on the sea-shores of New York 
and New Jersey rarely before the 10th of August, and seldom reaches the 
extensive sand-banks of East Florida previous to the month of November. 
Along the whole of this extended coast, it is more or less abundant, some- 
times appearing in bands composed of a few individuals, and at times in 
large flocks, but generally mingling with other species of small shore-birds. 
Thus I have seen Turnstones and Knots mixed with the Sanderlings, but in 
such cases they are perhaps wanderers, which have not succeeded in meet- 
ing with companions of their own species, that associate with the birds of 
which I "here speak. 
The Sanderling obtains its food principally by probing the moist sands of 
the sea-shores with its bill held in an oblique position. At every step it 
inserts this instrument with surprising quickness, to a greater or less depth, 
according to the softness of the sand, sometimes introducing it a quarter of 
an inch, sometimes to the base. The holes thus made may be seen on the 
borders of beaches, when the tide is fast receding, in rows of twenty, thirty, 
or more ; in certain spots less numerous ; for it appears that when a place 
proves unproductive of the food for which they are searching, they very 
soon take to their wings and remove to another, now and then in so hurried 
a manner that one might suppose they had been suddenly frightened. The 
contents of the stomach of those which I shot while thus occupied, were 
