BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 113 



BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



(Tringa rufescens, Veillot, Le Tringa rousdtre, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. 

 Naturelle 2de. edit, xxxiv. p. 470. Encycl. Method, p. 1050. 

 Yarrel. in Lin. Transact, xvi. p. 109. t. 2.) 



Sp. Charact. — Bill blackish, scarcely the length of the head, near- 

 ly straight ; below pale ferruginous ; inner webs of the primaries 

 mottled ; rump blackish ; legs and feet brown : tarsus 15 lines 

 long. — Summer plumage varied with black and brownish-rufous ; 

 beneath rufous, much paler on the abdomen. Winter dress un- 

 known. 



This elegant species, some seasons, is not uncommon in 

 the market of Boston, in the month of August and Septem- 

 ber, being met with near the capes of Massachusetts Bay. 

 My friend, Mr. Cooper, has also obtained specimens from 

 the vicinity of New York ; and it was first discovered by 

 Veillot, in the then territory of Louisiana, so that, cours- 

 ing along the shores of the Mississippi, and thus penetrating 

 inland, it probably proceeds, as well as in the vicinity of 

 the sea coast, to its northern destination, to breed, and is 

 often here associated with the Pectoral Sandpiper, which 

 it resembles very much in size, and bill, though perfectly 

 distinct in plumage. As a proof, how wide it wanders, 

 this species has also been rarely obtained, even in France 

 and England, and a specimen figured in the Linnaean 

 Transactions of London, is there given as a new addition to 

 the Fauna of that country. It was shot in September 1826, 

 in the parish of Melbourne, Cambridgeshire, in company 

 with the Siberian Plover or Guignard ( Characlrius mori- 

 nellus.) 



Its food, while here, consists principally of land and ma- 

 rine insects, particularly grasshoppers, which abounding in 

 the autumn, become the favorite prey of a variety of birds ; 

 even the Turnstone at this season, laying aside his arduous 



10* 



