Ornithological biography, Vol. 4 (of 5) : $b An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of AmericaAudubon, John James
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Ornithological biography, Vol. 4 (of 5) : $b An account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America
Audubon, John James
Birds -- North America
I found these birds quite abundant on the whole coast of Florida,
during winter, and I have no doubt that many remain with us all the
year; indeed, it would not at all surprise me to hear that some of them
actually breed in parts of the alpine districts of our Middle States. I
have also found them equally numerous along the whole coast of the Bay
of Mexico, during my recent visit to Texas, when, late in April, some
of them were still travelling from farther south-west, and proceeding
eastward. In South Carolina, they are frequent in spring and autumn,
along the borders of the rice fields, and inland fresh-water ponds.
Since writing the above, my friend Dr TOWNSEND has furnished me with
a list of some of the birds seen by him on the Rocky Mountains and the
Columbia River, in which this species is mentioned as being found along
the shores of that celebrated stream of the far west.
TRINGA PUSILLA, _Wils._ Amer. Ornith. vol. v. p. 32, pl. 37,
fig. 4.—_Ch. Bonap._, Synopsis of Birds of the United States,
p. 319.
WILSON’S SANDPIPER, TRINGA WILSONII, _Nuttall_, Manual, vol.
ii. p. 120.
Adult Male in Summer Plumage. Plate CCCXX. Fig. 1.
Bill shorter than the head, slender, straight, compressed, tapering
from the base to near the point, which is slightly swelled, but with
the tip rather acute. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight,
the ridge narrow and convex, a little broader and flattened towards
the end, the sides sloping, with the nasal groove extending to near
the tip. Lower mandible with the angle very long and narrow, the dorsal
line straight, towards the end slightly declinate, the sides sloping a
little outwards, with a groove extending to near the tip.
Head of moderate size, oblong, compressed. Neck rather short. Body
compact, ovate. Feet of moderate length and slender; tibia bare a
fourth of its length; tarsus of moderate length, compressed, scutellate
before and behind, so as to leave scarcely any intermediate space; hind
toe extremely small; anterior toes rather long, slender, free, slightly
margined, and with numerous scutella above. Claws small, slightly
arched, much compressed, that of the third toe larger, with the inner
edge a little dilated.
Plumage soft, blended on the neck and lower parts, somewhat compact
on the upper. Wings long, pointed; primaries tapering, obtuse, the
first longest, the second very little shorter, the third rather more
than one-eighth of an inch shorter than the second, the rest rapidly
decreasing; outer secondaries incurved, obliquely rounded, inner
straight, tapering, one of them reaching to two-twelfths of an inch of
the end of the first quill. Tail of moderate length, doubly emarginate,
that is with the middle feathers considerably longer than the lateral,
which are a little longer than the intermediate.
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