TRINGA, Briss. Tern. SANDPIPER.
Bill middle-sized or long, very slightly arched, curved, or straight at the tip, soft and flexible through its whole length, compressed at the base, depressed, dilated, and obtuse at the tip, both mandibles channelled to near their extremities; nostrils lateral, conical, perforated in the membrane which invests the nasal sulcus in its whole length ; legs slender, naked above the knee, the three fore-toes quite divided ; but, in a few species, the middle and outer toe are connected by a membrane; the hinder articulated to the tarsus.
We readily adopt these limitations of the genus, sug gested by Temhiinck, who enjoyed so many excellent op portunities of studying the appearance and manners of the birds which compose it ; and we gladly also avail our selves of his descriptive definitions of the species, both because they suffice for the purposes of discrimination, and because we cannot afford space for the enumeration of the diversities of plumage incident to most of them, from their double moulting, and different stages of growth —circumstances which have involved some of our most eminent systematical writers in a labyrinth of confusion, and given rise to a very superfluous multiplication of spe cies. The birds in question travel in small groups, seve ral of which unite in the breeding season, and fix on a common station. They frequent marshy soils, near ri vers, lakes, and seas ; and they discuss the ooze, mud, shifting sands, or heaps of sea weed, thrown on the beach, in quest of coleopterous insects, larva', soft worms, mol lusca, the contents of small bivalve-shells, Ste. The young, before their first moulting, are very unlike thel7 parents; and the female is, for the most part, somewhat larger than the male.
T. subarquata, Tem. T. cinclus, Lin. Scolopax .africana, and Scolopax subarquata, Gruel. Numenius subarquata, Bech. and the young, Numenius pygnueus of the same author, and Numenius Africana, Lath. Subar coated Sand-piper, Red Sand-piper, Cape Curlew, Stint, Purre, Sanderling, Prov. Ox-bird, Bull-eye, Ox-eye, Least Snipe, Sea Lark, Sea Wagtail, &c. Bill arched, much longer than the head, the two middle tail-feathers longer than the lateral ones, tarsus fourteen lines long. The or dinary length of the full-grown bird is seven inches and six or eight lines. The female is rather larger than the male, and has a longer bill.
This species frequents the shores of seas and lakes, and more rarely occurs in the interior of countries. It mi grates along shores and the banks of rivers in spring and autumn, and is found in the four quarters of the world, specimens brought from Senegal, the Cape of Good Hope, and America, being perfectly similar to those of Switzer land and other European eountries. It feeds on insects, worms, and sea-weeds, and lays four or five yellowish eggs, spotted with brown, near the water's edge. During winter, it is found on all our coasts, appearing in vest flocks, especially affecting flat sandy shores and inlets. They leave us in April, though it is suspected that some of them remain with us all the year. These birds run nimbly near the edges of the retiring and flowing waves, and are constantly wagging their tail, while they are, at the same time, busily employed in picking up their food, which consists chiefly of small worms and insects. On taking flight, they give a kind of scream, and skim along the surface of the water with great rapidity, as well as with great regularity, not flying directly forward, but per forming their evolutions in large semicircles, alternately approaching the shore and the sea in their sweep, the cur vature of their course being indicated by the flocks ap pearing suddenly and alternately of a dark or snow-white colour, as their backs or their bellies are turned to or from the spectator.
7'. variabilis, Meyer, Tern. In its winter plumage, Cinclus, and Cinclus minor, of Brisson; and in its summer dress, 7'. alpine:, Gmel. Lath. Nils. and Numenius varia bilis, Beelist. At the time of its two periodical moult ings, it is the Cinclus torquatus, and Gallinago anglicana, of Brisson; whilst, in some of the intermediate stages, it corresponds to T. cinclus, var. B. Gmel. 7'. ruficollis, and sco/onax pusilla, of the same author. Variable, or Alpine or Dunlin. Bill almost straight, black, slightly sloping at the tip, and a little longer than the head ; the two middle tail feathers longer, than the lateral ones, and terminating in a point ; length of the tarsus nearly one foot. The bird measures from seven to eight inches, and weighs from nine to eleven drachms. It oc curs in Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, on the Siberian Alps, in Hudson's Bay, &c. Though not so plentiful as the purre, and others of its tribe, it may be seen on our shores in every month of the year, except from the latter end of June to the beginning of August, and is most fre quent in the spring and autumn. The nest is composed of dried tufts of grass, or rushes, and the eggs arc four, smoky-white, and irregularly marked with light and darker brown blotches, which are rather more distant and 'paler at the smaller end. It has been observed to breed, in company with the lapwing and ring-plover, in the islands of Ronalclsha and Salida, and at Loch Strathbey, near Fraserburgh, in the county of Aberdeen. " It is somewhat remarkable," observes Mr. Bewiek," that birds of different species, such as the ring dottrel, sanderling, &c. which associate with the purre, dunlin, &c. should un derstand the signal, which, from their wheeling about alto gether with such promptitude and good order, it would appear is given to the whole flock." T. cinerea, Lin. Tem. &c. including in its different states, 7'. grisea, Canutus, Islandica, mevia, and australis of Gruel. T. ferruginea, Meyer, and 7'. rztfa, Nils. Knot, or Knot Red, Aberdeen, Grisled Ash, Speckled, and Southern Bill straight, longer than the head, turgid and dilated near the tip ; all the tail feathers of equal length. Nine inches and a half long, and weight four ounces and a half. Inhabits the regions of the arc tic circle in summer, living among marshes, and in spring and autumn on the sea-shores. In Holland, these birds are more numerous during their v_errial than during their autumnal passage; and they are rare in Germany and France. They are gregarious, and run on the sand with great quickness. A specimen from Africa was found to correspond, in every respect, with the British. In Lin colnshire, and other fenny districts of England, they used to be caught. in great numbers, in nets, into which they were decoyed by wooden representations of themselves. The season for their capture is from August to Novem ber, when tne frost usually constrains them to disappear. When rattettei with bread end milk, they acquire so much plumpness, that they are unable to fly, and are then reck oned a great delicacy King Canute is said to have been particularly fond of them, and hence the trivial epithet Ca nutzta, which has been corrupted into knot. Lewin seems to have been mistaken when he asserts that this species breeds in our island.