RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 
317 
Red-back. Its residence here is but transient, chiefly in April 
and May, while passing to the Arctic Regions to breed ; and 
in September and October, when on its return southward to 
at quick intervals, his shrill, monotonous whistle. The female, when raised 
from the nest, flutters off for a few yards, and then assumes the same manners 
with the male. The young sit and squat among the grass or reeds, and, at that 
time, the parents will come within two yards of the person' in search of 
them. The Purre seems extensively distributed over both the European and 
American continents. I have not, however, received it from the Asiatic side, 
or any part of India, where so many of this tribe are commonly found. 
The genus Pelinda has been instituted and adopted, by several naturalists, 
for the Purre, the Little Sandpiper, and a few others, with the exclusion of 
the Pigmy Curlew and Knots. Though an advocate, generally, for sub- 
divisions, wherever any character can be seized upon, I cannot reconcile 
that of these birds. I can fix upon no character which is not equally 
applicable ; and the habits, the changes of plumage, and the form, are so similar, 
that, with the exception of modifications essential to every group, they compose 
one whole. The differences in form will be noticed under the respective 
species ; and, for the present, I prefer retaining these birds under the generic 
name of Tringa. 
The following species, not noticed by Wilson, have been added to the 
American list by different ornithologists : — 
T. Schinzii, Breh. On the authority of Bonaparte, identical with the 
Pelinda cinclus, var. of Say’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and met 
with, by the arctic expedition, on the borders of the lakes which skirt the 
Saskatchewan plains. So nearly allied to T. alpina, as to be confounded with 
it ; differs in size, and the distribution of markings. 
Tringa pectoralis, Bonap. Pelinda pectoralis of Say. This seems to have 
been first noticed in the valuable notes to Major Laing’s expedition to the 
Rocky Mountains. The following description is there given by Say: — 
P. pectoralis, Say. Bill, black, reddish yellow at base ; upper mandible, 
with a few indented punctures near the tip ; head above, black, plumage 
margined with ferruginous, a distinct brown line from the eye to the upper 
mandible ; cheeks, and neck beneath, cinereous, very slightly tinged with 
rufous, and lineate with blackish ; orbits, and line over the eye, white ; chin, 
white ; neck above, dusky, plumage margined with cinereous ; scapulars, inter- 
scapulars, and wing-coverts, black, margined with ferruginous, and, near the 
exterior tips, with whitish ; primaries, dusky, slightly edged with whitish ; outer 
quill-shaft, white ; back, (beneath the interscapulars,) rump, and tail-coverts, 
black, immaculate ; tail-feathers, dusky, margined with white at tip, two inter- 
mediate ones longest, acute, attaining the tip of the wings, black, edged with 
ferruginous ; breast, venter, vent, and inferior tail-coverts, white, plumage, 
