TRINGITES.—CALIDRIS. 385 
and the interior of British North America, northward to the Arctic coast 4+.— 
Mexico, Matamoros (Dresser ® 13 16), Guanajuato (Dugés 1°); Honpuras, Ruatan I. 
(Gaumer 8 17); Costa Rica (v. Frantzius \+), San José (Cherrie*®, Underwood, in litt.). 
—Sovutn AMERICA in winter, to Amazonia, Brazil, and Paraguay *.—E. Siperia ®. 
—Incidental in Europe ®. 
The Buff-breasted Sandpiper is easily recognized by the black marbling on the 
inner surface of the quills. It breeds in the extreme northern parts of America, and 
migrates south in winter. During the latter season the species is met with in Central 
America, passing apparently by both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts to the southern 
continent. On migration it occurs in flocks, and is found in abundance in some localities. 
Like many other small Waders, 7. subruficollis is somewhat demonstrative during 
the breeding-season, and goes through many curious evolutions, the males puffing out 
their breast, walking about with one wing uplifted, and soaring to a height of thirty 
feet with the legs hanging down®. 
The nest is a mere depression in the ground, lined with a little moss. The eggs are 
four in number, pyriform in shape, of a pale greenish-white, thickly and rather coarsely 
blotched with umber-brown and underlying pale purple, the blotches intermingled 
with some smaller markings %. 
CALIDRIS. 
Calidris, Cuvier, Lecons Anat. Comp. t. ii. (1800); Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 526 
(1896). 
Calidris belongs to a small section of the Scolopacinz in which the culmen is of 
about the same length as the tarsus. The Little Stints (Limonites) are also nearly 
allied to the present genus, but the latter is easily recognized by the absence of a 
hind toe. 
Only one species is known, cosmopolitan in its range, breeding in the Arctic Regions, 
and going south in winter. 
1. Calidris arenaria. 
The Sanderling, Albin, N. H. Birds, ii. p. 68°. 
Tringa arenaria, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 251°; Seebohm, Geogr. Distr. Charadr. p. 431 ’. 
Calidris arenaria, Illiger, Prodr. p. 2494; Scl. P.Z.S. 1857, p. 230°; 1859, p. 869°; Scl. & Salv. 
Ibis, 1859, p. 229"; Salv. Ibis, 1864, p. 886°; 1889, p. 379°; Lawr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. ix. 
p. 210°°; Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 308"; Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. no, 4, p. 47"; 
Sumichr. La Nat. v. p. 232**; Boucard, P. Z. S. 1883, p. 462"; Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. 
Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 249%; A. O. U. Check-l. N. Amer. Birds, 2nd ed. p. 91"; 
Elliot, N. Amer. Shore-Birds, p. 104°; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 526”; 
Oates, Cat. Eggs Brit. Mus. ii. p. 52”. 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Aves, Vol. IIL, May 1903. 49 
