80 COMMON TERN.
claw of the middle toe from to twelfths ; • but similar differences
are observed in the British birds.
The tongue is inch long, sagittate and papillate at the base,
very slender, tapering, the point slit, the upper surface a little concave,
the lower horny towards the end. Aperture of posterior nares linear,
9 twelfths long. Palate with a middle and two lateral ridges. (Esophagus
6 inches long, extremely wide, its average diameter on the
neck 7 twelfths, within the thorax 11 twelfths. The stomach is muscular,
1 inch long, the lateral muscles not distinguishable, the fasciculi
of fibres being disposed as in the rapacious birds ; the central tendinous
spaces 3 twelfths in diameter ; the cuticular lining strong, with
broad longitudinal rugae. The contents of the stomach, fishes. The
proventriculus 1 inch long. Intestine 1 foot 7 inches long, of moderate
diameter, convoluted, varying from 2f twelfths to 2 j twelfths.
Rectum 1 inch long. Goeca 5 twelfths long, with a diameter of § of a
twelfth.
The trachea is 3 | inches long, twelfths in breadth above,
twelfth below ; its rings 103, feeble and unossified ; the lateral mus^
cles extremely slender ; there are sterno-tracheal muscles, but none
besides.. Bronchial half-rings about 18.
S P O T T E D S A N D P I P E R .
TorJyes MAa;I.AIATlis, Tkmm.
I ' l . A T K COC X . ' Mal® and F I Vale.
In the course of my.last.jonrney in search of information respecting
theäiäirds which at one. season or öfter are-found within the limits
of the Uni t s ! States, I: observed so vast a number of them in Texas,
that I almost concluded that-more than two-thirds of our species occur
there. Among them I observed the beautiful bird now before you.
The Spotted Sandpiper has a .wwäerfully'extensive range,,'for I
have met with itnotonly in most parts?&f: the I'niteil States, but also on
the shores of Labrador, wher4 ,on the 17th June 1833,1 found rt breeding.
On Ü10 2!)th of July, the young: were fully fledged, and scampering
over the rocks about us, amid the putrid and drying eod-fish.ii'Sln
tIiati.Bpunt.rv it .breeds, later by threej^fconths than in Texas ; for on
the head waters-of Buffalo Bayou, about sixty rnilos from the,margin
of the Mexican (¡jilf, I saw broods already well grown on the 5th of
May 1837. On the same day.of the saine g&onth in 1832, a similar occurrence
happened on an island near Indian Key, on .the south-east coast
of Florida. . Jn Newfoundland, on .the.other hand, the young wore.just
fully fledged or, the l i f t of August 1803. It appears strange that
none jvcrc observed by Dr Richardson on the, shores of Hudson's Bay,
or ifefte interior of that country. They axe,:qui|§aljundant along the
margins of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and. their tributaries, where they
remain until driven off by the cold, and return about the beginning of
April,: ät whift period the Purple Martin also'mates, its appearance.
In our Middle Districts, thlg, arrive a. fortnight later. On the Island
of Jestiep, Gulf of St Lawn-nee, about twenty pairs had nests
and eggs on the lilth of Juno; and tliii air was filled with the pleasing
sound of their voices while's we, remained there. The nests were
placed among the tall slender grass, that covered the southern part of
the island. They were more bulky and more neatly constructed than
any that I have examined southward of the Gulf of St Lawrence ; and
yet they were not to be compared with those'found in Labrador, where,
in every instance they were concealed under ledges, of rocks extendvol.
3v. 1 t i'