igol] McCallum — Buff-Breasted Sandpiper. 127 



TRINGITES RUFESCENS, BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



By G. A. McCallum, M.D., Dunnville, Out. 

 (Read before the Ornithologfical Sec. of the Entomolog-ical Soc. of Ont.) 



I write this at the request of a friend to report at greater 

 length the capture of a female of this species and her nest, which 

 I was fortunate enough to take near Dunnville, Haldimand Co., 

 Ontario on June loth 1879. The only particular point of interest 

 being the latitude in which this nest was found, since, heretofore, 

 this bird has generally been credited with breeding only in high 

 latitudes. A short report was published in Mr. Mcllwraith's work 

 on the "Birds of Ontario " a number of years ago and were it not 

 that the fact of its breeding in this locality is very remarkable the 

 published report already given would be sufficient. However, as the 

 identification of my specimen has been doubted by Prof. Macoun 

 and it has been suggested by him in his Check J ist of the Birds 

 of Canada that I evidently had mistaken the bird for the Spotted 

 Sandpiper, Actitis 7nacul(iria, I felt somewhat nettled that an old 

 fellow like myself who has closely observed birds all his life should 

 be credited with not knowing a Spotted Sandpiper, one ot our 

 most beautiful as well as one of the very commonest of our shore 

 birds. 



I find however, that I am not the only observer who has been 

 doubted when he reported seeing or taking the nest of this rare 

 little bird the Buff"-breasted Sand-piper. Dr. Heerman claimed to 

 have found its nest in Texas made of grasses placed in a hollow 

 in the ground and containing four eggs but Prof. Baird said "but 

 as this bird breeds in high northern regions up to the very border 

 of the Arctic Ocean he may have been mistaken in his identifica- 

 tion." 



As far as I can make out it has always been a very uncommon 

 species, only one or two birds having been seen at a time in any 

 locality. It was entirely unknown to Wilson and Buonaparte and 

 was first made known as a species by Vieillot from a specimen 

 taken in Louisiana, but Audubon had not noticed it there and the 

 first one he ever saw was a specimen in the hands of the Arctic 

 explorer Capt. James Clark Ross who had received it from a 

 sailor who had secured it on one of his inland excursions in the 



