388 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY.
[156.J 1. T otanos semipalmatus. (Temm.)w' Semipalmated Tatler.
Genus, SemipalmTaotetda nSunsi,p Be.e1 cPhst. enn. Arct. Z o o l ii., No. 380, pi. 20, f. 2. WiLS.y-vii., pi. 56, f. 3.
Chevalier semi-pahne ( Totanus semipalmatus.) Temm., ii., p. 637-
Totanus (Cataptrophorus) semipalmatus. Bonap. Syn., No. 259.
Plate lxvii.
This bird, which breeds abundantly in the United States, was observed by us
in considerable numbers on the shores of some small saline lakes near the
Saskatchewan. It does not, perhaps, range farther north in summer than the
fifty-sixth parallel.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed, 21st June, on the Saskatchewan plains.
Colour.__Upper plumage brownish-grey, approaching to broccoli-brown, striped faintly
on the neck, more conspicuously marked on the head and between the shoulders, and irregularly
barred on the scapulars, tertiaries, and their coverts, with blackish-brown. Tail coverts
white. Tail whitish; thickly mottled with pale greyish-brown, th at colour forming the ground
of the central feathers. Spurious wing, primary coverts, outer halves o f the primaries, the
axillary feathers, and under wing coverts, blackish-brown : basal halves o f all the primaries
and the upper row of under wing coverts white, the posterior primaries tipped with the same ;
secondaries and the outer webs of their greater coverts white, marbled with brown. A spotted
liver-brown streak on the lores, bounded above by a spotted white one. Eyelids, chin, belly,
and vent, w hite; rest of the under plumage brownish-white, streaked on the throat and transversely
barred on the breast, shoulders, flanks, and under tail coverts, with clove-brown ; the
bars pointed in the middle.—Female coloured like the male.
Form.—BUI strong, straight, nearly cylindrical from the nostrils ; tip of the upper m andible
b ent down. Nasal groove deep, abrupt, h alf the length o f the bill. Wings rather
longer than the square tail. Toes moderately long and rather stout, the anterior ones
connected by webs, of which the outer one is longest.—The female is an inch longer, but
resembles the male in its plumage.
,total. . 15
Lin.
6 Length of bill to rictus
Inch. Lin.
. 2 6£ Length of middle nail
Inch. Lin.
. 0 3
of tail . . 4 0 „ of tarsus . 2 7 „ of hind toe . . 0 4
of wing , . 8 3 „ of naked thigh . 1 3 „ of its nail . 0 I i
of bill above . 2 5 ,, of middle toe . i m