PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 
49 
whitish, minutely dotted with blackish; the irides are dark: 
a very distinct brown line passes from the eye to the upper 
mandible: the cheeks, neck above, sides of the neck, and beneath 
down to the breast are grayish with a rufous tinge, and beautifully 
streaked with blackish, occupying the middle of each feather, 
along the shaft: surrounded and well defined (in perfect speci¬ 
mens,) by these markings the throat and chin are of a purer 
white than in other Tringse: the remaining lower parts from 
the breast to the lower tail-coverts, including the flanks and 
long axillary feathers are white, the base of the plumage dark 
plumbeous, and a few blackish streaks along the shafts of some 
of the flank and vent feathers : the feathers of the neck above, 
owing to the circumstance of the blackish central line widening 
considerably, become gradually dusky, the feathers there being 
merely bordered with the grayish buff. The interscapular region, 
the scapulars and small wing-coverts are shining black with 
greenish reflections ; they are margined with ferruginous, and 
near the exterior tips with whitish: the lower part of the back, 
the rump, and the upper tail-coverts are jet black and without 
margins. The wings are five inches long, lined with white, 
which predominates on the under wing-coverts: these are howevei 
a little varied with blackish and gray : the primaries are dusky 
as well as the outer wing-coverts, and are slightly edged with 
whitish: the shaft of the outer quill is white; of the others 
entirely dusky : the first primary is longest, and after the second 
they decrease rapidly. The tail is two inches to the tip of the 
lateral feathers, and a quarter of an inch more to the tip of the 
middle ones, which are longest by that much, and somewhat 
tapering, and are black edged with rufous, while the others are 
pale dusky, margined with white all around the tip. The feet 
are greenish yellow, the bare space above the knee five-eighths of 
an inch: the tarsus very nearly one inch, and equal to the middle 
VOL. iv.—N 
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i 1 ii 
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