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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Actitis macularia

Sandpiper \Sand"pi`per\, n.

  1. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of small limicoline game birds belonging to Tringa, Actodromas, Ereunetes, and various allied genera of the family Tringid[ae].

    Note: The most important North American species are the pectoral sandpiper ( Tringa maculata), called also brownback, grass snipe, and jacksnipe; the red-backed, or black-breasted, sandpiper, or dunlin ( T. alpina); the purple sandpiper ( T. maritima: the red-breasted sandpiper, or knot ( T. canutus); the semipalmated sandpiper ( Ereunetes pusillus); the spotted sandpiper, or teeter-tail ( Actitis macularia); the buff-breasted sandpiper ( Tryngites subruficollis), and the Bartramian sandpiper, or upland plover. See under Upland. Among the European species are the dunlin, the knot, the ruff, the sanderling, and the common sandpiper ( Actitis hypoleucus syn. Tringoides hypoleucus), called also fiddler, peeper, pleeps, weet-weet, and summer snipe. Some of the small plovers and tattlers are also called sandpipers.

  2. (Zo["o]l.) A small lamprey eel; the pride.

    Curlew sandpiper. See under Curlew.

    Stilt sandpiper. See under Stilt.