SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 487 
Killdeer (Agialitis vociferws) as to cause the belief that their identification could not be 
correctly made. During the last year eggs were sent to me for verification from five 
different parties, and all were deemed not worthy of credence. A few days ago, hearing 
of a Solitary Tattler baving been shot near her nest, and an egg obtained, in Castleton, 
Vermont, I at once wrote to the party, and have obtained from him a temporary loan of 
both parent and egg, with pefmission to describe the same in the Bulletin. 
The bird and egg were taken by Mr. Jenness Richardson about the middle of May,— 
I have not the exact date,—i878, at Lake Bomaseen, on the ground, in a pasture bord- 
ering ona swamp. The bird was on her nest when first discovered, but fluttered off when 
approached, ran a short distance, then stood still, watching him until she was secured. 
There was no actual nest, only a small depression in the ground. I am informed by 
Mr. Richardson that the bird is quite common in that locality, but very shy. This egg 
resembles no egg in my possession, and in its appearance there is something suggestive 
of an egg prematurely cut from its parent, It is smaller than I anticipated, measuring 
only 1.37 by .95, while the egg of Totanus ochropus, which bird closely corresponds in 
size and appearance with our Solitary, measures 1.50 by 1.10. The ground color is a 
light drab, similar to that of the egg of Agialitis melodus. Over this are scattered small 
rounded markings of browr, some of these quite dark, nowhere confluent, and never 
large enough to be called blotches. At the larger end there are a few faint purplish or 
lilac discolorations or shel!-marks. In shape it is an elongated pyriform.” 
Genus TRINGOIDES. Bonaparte. 
Bill short, st®2ight, grooved nearly to the tip, about equal to tarsus and middle toe. 
Gap extending but little beyond base of culmen. Outer toe webbed, inner cleft. Tail 
much round: d, more than half the wing. 
TRINGOIDES MACULARIUS (L.) Gr. 
Spotted Sandpiper. 
Totanus macularius, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 165. 
Tringoides macularius, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 369; Reprint, 11; Food of 
Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 573; Reprint, 1675, 13.—LANGDON, Cat Birds 
of Cin., 1877, 15; Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 183; Reprint, 17; 
Summer Birds, iii, 1880, 227. 
Spotted Sandp:per, BALLOU, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 138. 
Tringa macularia, LINNZUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 249. 
Totanus macularius, TEMMINCK, Man., 1815, 422. 
Tringoides macularius, GRAY, Gen. of Birds, iii, 1849, 574. 
Above, olive (quaker-color, exactly as in the Cuckoo), with a coppery lustre, finely 
varied with black; line over eye, and entire under parts pure white, with numerous 
sharp circular black spots, Jarger and more crowded in the female than in the male, en- 
tirely wanting in very young birds; secondaries broadly white-tipped, and inner prima- 
ries with a white spot; most of the tail feathers like the back with snb-terminal black 
bar and white tip; bill pale-yellow, tipped with black; feet flesh-color. Length, 7-8; 
wing, about 4; tail, about 2; bill, tarsus and middle toe, each about 1. 
Habitat, North America at large. Breeds nearly throughout its North American 
range. Winters in the Southern States and beyond. Central and South America 
to Brazil. West Indies. Casual in Europe. 
