A Manual of Philippine Birds. Richard C. McGregor
(Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Siquijor (Bourns & Worcester); Ticao (McGregor). Africa, Europe, and northern Asia; in winter Indian Peninsula to Australia.
“Adult male in winter plumage.—Above bronzy brown, with light ashy bronze margins to the feathers, which are slightly spotted with white on both edges; scapulars like back, but with somewhat larger white spots; lower back and rump uniform brown, feathers of the latter edged with white; upper tail-coverts pure white, lateral ones with blackish shaft-streaks and irregular longitudinal markings; lesser wing-coverts uniform brown; median and greater coverts spotted with white on both webs and resembling the scapulars; alula, primary-coverts, and quills blackish brown, fringed with white at the ends; secondaries notched with white on both webs, with a barred appearance of blackish intermediary bands; center tail-feathers ashy brown, barred with blackish brown, and deeply notched with white; lateral feathers white, barred with blackish, these bars becoming irregular on lateral feathers and reduced to a few freckles on outermost ones; feathers of crown and hind neck almost uniform ashy brown, slightly mottled with darker brown centers; lores dusky, surmounted by a distinct white eyebrow; sides of face white, slightly streaked with dark brown; ear-coverts uniform dark brown along their upper edge; cheeks and throat white; sides of neck, lower throat, fore neck, and chest ashy, varied with shaft-lines of brown; remainder of under surface pure white; sides of upper breast ashy brown; lateral under tail-coverts with blackish shaft-streaks and a few frecklings of black; under wing-coverts white, mottled with blackish bases; axillars white, with a few irregular bars and freckles; lower primary-coverts and quills below dusky brown, with whitish spots on the edges of the inner secondaries. ‘Basal half of bill olive-brown, terminal half black; legs and feet pale greenish; claws dark horn-color; iris brown.’ (Oates.) Length, 216; culmen, 29; wing, 12; tail, 47; tarsus, 35.
“Adult female.—Similar to the male. ‘Bill blackish, olive at the base of lower mandible; feet olive; iris very dark brown.’ (Butler.) Length, 203; wing, 124; tail, 48; culmen, 28; tarsus, 38.
“Adult male in summer plumage.—More variegated than in winter, the back being uniform dark brown, with large notches of white on both webs, and having very distinct white edges to scapulars and inner wing-coverts; long upper tail-coverts barred with dusky blackish and resembling the center tail-feathers; head and neck streaked with white; sides of face, lower throat, and fore neck very distinctly and broadly streaked with blackish brown centers to the feathers; sides of body and under tail-coverts mottled with cross-bars of blackish brown; the axillars narrowly barred with blackish brown. ‘Bill blackish olive, below at base lighter brownish olive; feet light grayish olive; iris dark brown.’ (Stejneger.) Length, 178; culmen, 33; wing, 124; tail, 47; tarsus, 35.
“Young after first molt.—Differs from the adults in being closely spotted on the upper surface, but the spots more or less rufescent; lower throat and chest ashy as in the winter plumage of the adults, but the dusky brown stripes very distinct and invading sides of body; axillars pure white, or with the merest trace of brown frecklings. ‘Bill dusky brown, inclining to greenish olive toward base; feet greenish olive, iris blackish brown.’ (Butler.)
“In the breeding season the white spots on the upper surface become much worn and abraded, so that the general appearance of the back is very uniform; the mottling on the fore neck and chest becomes very distinct by reason of the abrasion of the white margins of the feathers, and the axillars are completely barred across with brown.” (Sharpe.)
Subfamily SCOLOPACINÆ.
This subfamily contains all of the snipes and a number of small sandpipers; the toes are without webs, otherwise many of the genera might easily fall in the subfamily Totaninæ.
Genera.
a1. Culmen equal to or less than tarsus.b1. No hind toe. Calidris (p. 132)b2. Hind toe present.c1. Tarsus about equal to middle toe with claw. Pisobia (p. 133)c2. Tarsus longer than middle toe with claw. Heteropygia (p. 138)
a2. Culmen longer than tarsus.b1. Eye not placed far back in the head; ear opening well behind posterior margin of eye.c1. Larger; wing more than 150 mm.; culmen more than 40 mm. Tringa (p. 141)c2. Smaller; wing less than 130 mm.; culmen less than 40 mm.d1. Bill slender, upper mandible narrow, its tip slightly expanded; upper tail-coverts white. Erolia (p. 139)d2. Bill broad and flat; end of upper mandible decidedly decurved, its tip pointed; upper tail-coverts not white. Limicola (p. 142)b2. Eye placed well back in head; ear opening just below hinder margin of eye.c1. Tarsus less than middle toe with claw; culmen nearly twice the length of tarsus; culmen straight. Gallinago (p. 143)c2. Tarsus more than middle toe with claw and but little less than culmen; culmen decidedly decurved at its tip. Rostratula (p. 147)
Genus CALIDRIS Illiger, 1811.
Bill straight, slightly expanded at tip, culmen about equal to tarsus and longer than middle toe with claw; hind toe wanting.
112. CALIDRIS LEUCOPHÆA (Pallas).
SANDERLING.
Tringa leucophæa Pallas, in Vroeg’s Catal. (1764), 32.
Trynga alba Pallas, Vroeg’s Catal. Adumbr. (1764), 7; Sherborn, Smiths. Misc. Colls. (1905), 47, 341.
Tringa arenaria Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 12 (1766), 1, 251.
Calidris arenaria Oates, Bds. Brit. Burmah (1885), 2, 398; Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 52; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 526; Hand-List (1899), 1, 163.
Calidris alba Richmond, Smiths. Misc. Colls. (1905), 47, 347.
Calidris abba McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 27 (error).
Calidris leucophæa A. O. U. Committee, Auk (1908), 25, 367.
Luzon (Whitehead, McGregor). Arctic regions; in winter to Africa, South America, Marshall Islands, Indian Peninsula to Australia.
“Winter plumage.—Forehead, face, and the whole lower plumage pure white; crown, nape, hind neck, back, and scapulars pale ashy, the crown with well-defined black shaft-streaks, the other parts with narrower and less distinct shaft-streaks; wing-coverts blackish, the median and greater coverts broadly edged with white; primaries dark brown, blacker on the tips and outer webs, the shafts white, a portion of the outer webs of the later ones white; secondaries black, whitish at base and tipped with white; tertiaries rather broadly edged with white; tail pale brown on the outer webs, more or less white on the inner. ‘Iris dark brown; bill, legs, feet, and claws black.’ (Armstrong.) Length, 190; tail, 51; wing, 122; tarsus, 25; bill from gape, 28.” (Oates.)
“Male in summer plumage.—Differs from the winter plumage in being mottled and not uniform, the upper surface being cinnamon-rufous, mottled with black centers to the feathers, which have hoary whitish or ashy edges; the inner secondaries cinnamon-rufous like the scapulars and back; sides of lower back and lateral upper tail-coverts pure white; sides of face, throat, and sides of breast deep cinnamon-rufous, mottled with black centers to the feathers; rest of under surface white. Length, 165; culmen, 23; wing, 124; tail, 48; tarsus, 23; middle toe with claw, 19.
“Female in summer plumage.—Similar to the male but has not quite so much bright rufous in the plumage, the fore