114 WADING BIRDS. 



employment, is now content to feed upon these swarming 

 and easily acquired insects. 



The length of the BufF- Breasted Sandpiper is from 8 to 9 inches. 

 The bill is slender, very slightly curved, brownish-black, | of an 

 inch measured from above, an inch from the rictus, and from this 

 part to the occiput about the same. Top of the head dark brown, 

 the feathers edged with very light brown ; back of the neck light 

 brown, with minute longitudinal darker spots, the back darker, the 

 feathers tipt with brown. Wing coverts palish brown. Primaries 

 dusky-brown, tipt with white, shafts, except the first, dusky; the 

 tertials and tail coverts brown, edged with a lighter tint. Tail 

 wedge-formed, the middle feathers dusky-brown, the lateral ones light 

 brown bordered with dusky and fringed with white. Below pale ru- 

 fous ; abdomen, flanks, and under tail coverts nearly white, sides of the 

 neck faintly spotted ; anterior portions of the under surface of the 

 wing rufous brown, the outer part spotted, under wing coverts pure 

 white. Outer webs of the primaries dusky, inner half of the inner 

 webs beautifully mottled with dark specks ; secondaries also mottled 

 at their bases. Legs bare half an inch above the knee. Middle toe 

 7 eights of an inch. Tarsus 1^ inches. — In the young birds the 

 tints are much lighter, the primaries more spotted, some of the inner 

 wing coverts also mottled ; all the upper plumage more broadly 

 edged with pale buff, on the back inclining to white. The color be- 

 neath is also buff, becoming almost white on the belly and vent. 



BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 



(Tringa plutyrhuica, Temm. Bonap. j\'ujnc7iiiis j)ygmaiis. Lath. 

 nee Beg H ST. Naum. Vog. t. 10. fig. 22. [summer adult].) 



Sp. Charact. — Bill longer than the head, slightly curved at the 

 point, much depressed and reddish-grey at base ; rump black ; mid- 

 dle tail feathers longest ; feet greenish-ash ; tarsus 10 or 11 lines 

 long. — Summer plumage varied with black and rufous ; beneath 

 pure white. Winter dress, ash-color, white beneath. 



This species, according to Temminck and Bonaparte, 

 common to both continents, is of very rare occurrence in the 

 United States. In the high boreal regions of Europe and 



