The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sandpiper \Sand"pi`per\, n.
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(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.
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(Zo["o]l.) A small lamprey eel; the pride.
Curlew sandpiper. See under Curlew.
Stilt sandpiper. See under Stilt.
Fiddler \Fid"dler\, n. [AS. fi[eth]elere.]
One who plays on a fiddle or violin.
(Zo["o]l.) A burrowing crab of the genus Gelasimus, of many species. The male has one claw very much enlarged, and often holds it in a position similar to that in which a musician holds a fiddle, hence the name; -- called also fiddler crab, calling crab, soldier crab, and fighting crab.
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(Zo["o]l.) The common European sandpiper ( Tringoides hypoleucus); -- so called because it continually oscillates its body.
Fiddler crab. (Zo["o]l.) See Fiddler, n., 2.