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, or
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}.
2. (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
{calling crab}, {soldier crab}, and {fighting crab}.
3. (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.