(Zool.) Any one of numerous species of small limicoline game birds belonging to Tringa, Actodromas, Ereunetes, and various allied genera of the family Tringidae. 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 (Tringa alpina); the purple sandpiper (Tringa maritima: the red-breasted sandpiper, or knot (Tringa 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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