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BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
North America,” the Peruvians called the Spotted Sandpiper “til-til” 
for the same reason that we call it teeter in its summer home.” 
Additional Literature.—Job, H. K., Educational Leaflet 51, Nat. Assoc. 
Audubon Soc— Leister, C. W., Bird-Lore, XXI, 287-289, 1919.— Miller, O. T., 
With the Birds in Maine, 146-152, 1904. 
SOLITARY SANDPIPER: Trmga solitaria solitaria Wilson 
Description. — Wing: 4.S-5.2 inches, tail 2-2.2, bill 1-1.2. Similar to the West¬ 
ern Solitary but smaller, summer adults more distinctly spotted, white bars on tail 
averaging wider, and in juvenal plumage with the spotting of the back white or buffy 
instead of brown. 
Range.— Breeds in Mackenzie and northern Alberta, possibly also in eastern 
North America; winters in Porto Rico, Colombia, and Ecuador. 
State Records.— A specimen now in the United States National Museum, taken 
at Guadalupita at an altitude of 6,800 feet, on August 7, 1903, by A. E. Weller, 
gives the only authentic record for New Mexico. 
Additional Literature.—Brewster, William, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 
Harvard, LXVI, 260-264, 1925. 
WESTERN SOLITARY SANDPIPER: Trmga solitaria cinnamomea (Brewster) 
Description. — Wing: 5.1-5.5 inches, tail 2.2-2.3, bill 1.1-1.3. Adults: Top of 
head and hind neck brown, sparsely marked with white; back, rump and central 
upper tail coverts dark olive-brown, finely specked with whitish , outer tail feathers 
strikingly barred with white and dusky; outside wing quills and edge of wing black, 
inner base of outside quill more or less freckled; axillars and wing linings barred 
blackish brown and white; throat and breast white, narrowly streaked with dark 
brown; belly white: iris brown, eyelids white, bill blackish, legs and feet olive. Young 
in fall: Light spots on back, and wings brownish buffy or cinnamon; streaked pattern 
of underparts more diffuse. 
Comparisons.— The Western Solitary can be distinguished from the adult 
Spotted Sandpiper by slightly larger size, whitish specks instead of black markings 
on upperparts, more sharply barred outer tail feathers, brown, streaked neck band, 
and absence of wing bar and large spots on underparts. It can also be distinguished 
from the young Spotted Sandpiper by the markings of upperparts, wings and tail, 
but might be confused by similarity of underparts. (See page 264.) 
From the Solitary, the Western Solitary is distinguished by slightly larger size, 
summer adults less distinctly spotted with whitish, white bars on tail narrower 
(blackish ones broader), middle tail feathers often wholly brownish gray; young with 
spotting of upperparts brownish buffy or cinnamomeous instead of white (Ridgway) 
and freckling on the inner web of the outside primary (Brewster). 
Range.— Probably breeds from Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, and the Athabaska 
and Mackenzie region south to western Alberta and northern British Columbia; 
winters as far south as Uruguay and Argentina. 
State Records.— Judged by the number of records the Western Solitary is a 
common sandpiper in New' Mexico. It occurs, however, only as a migrant, for the 
statement that it breeds in the State was based on neither eggs nor young, but 
merely on the presence of old birds during the summer season. As the species has 
the queer habit of starting on its southward migration before the middle of summer 
its occurrence during the month of July is no proof of breeding. It is not probable 
that it breeds anywhere within five hundred miles of New Mexico, but fall migrants 
