70 
SCHINZ’S SANDPIPER. 
vent, and inferior tail-coverts pure white, plumage plumbeous at 
base; scapulars and lesser wing-coverts margined with white; 
greater wing-coverts with a broad white tip ; primaries surpassing 
the tip of the tail, blackish, slightly edged with whitish, exterior 
shaft white, shafts whitish on the middle of their length; rump 
blackish, plumage margined at tip with cinereous tinctured with 
rufous; tail-coverts white, submargins black; tail-feathers cine¬ 
reous margined with white, two middle ones slightly longer, 
black margined with white ; legs blackish. Adult male. Length 
to tip of tail seven inches. Bill seven eighths of an inch.” 
This bird was shot in November, near Engineer Cantonment; 
and Mr. Say thought it was probably a variety of the very 
changeable cinclus (Tringa alpina) in its winter plumage. It is 
this very specimen that we have had represented of its full size in 
the annexed figure in order that naturalists may judge if we are 
right in the course that we have chosen. Be it as it may, we are 
satisfied that Tringa schinzii is a good species, well distinguished 
from Tringa alpina by its smaller size, and proportionally even 
shorter bill. The more extensively white upper tail-coverts are 
the best and most conspicuous mark : it is also to be observed 
that in the summer dress the ferruginous color of the upper part 
is paler, the black spot of the breast more restricted and less 
pure; and the neck more broadly streaked. Both sexes are 
moreover perfectly alike in color, which is never the case in the 
alpina in spring dress. It belongs to the subgenus Tringa , of 
which we have already treated, and it is common to both conti¬ 
nents. In America it is found from far beyond the Mississippi 
to the Atlantic shores, and is rather common in autumn on the 
coasts of New Jersey? either in flocks by themselves, or mixing in 
company with other Sandpipers, with which it has every habit in 
common. 
