NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 261 



Family CHARADRIID.E. Genus Trixga. 



Sub-family SCOL OPA CINjE. 



BONAPARTE'S SANDPIPER. 



Tringa fuscicollis, Vieillot. 

 (British : Rare abnormal autumn migrant.) 

 Single Brooded. Laying season, June. 



Breeding area : Northern Nearctic region. Bona- 

 parte's Sandpiper breeds throughout the Arctic regions 

 of America, from Greenland in the east to the Mackenzie 

 River in the west. 



Breeding habits : Bonaparte's Sandpiper is a 

 migrant, and reaches its breeding grounds at the end of 

 May, or early in June. It is gregarious and social in 

 winter and whilst on passage, but nests in scattered 

 pairs. The breeding haunts of this Sandpiper, so far as 

 they are known, are situated close to the sea, on the 

 barren grounds, or on the banks of rivers in its vicinity. 

 Of its pairing habits nothing has been recorded. Mac 

 Farlane met with the nest of Bonaparte's Sandpiper in 

 this region, and describes it as merely a hollow in the 

 ground, lined with a few dead leaves. The bird's actions 

 at the nest appear never to have been described. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of Bonaparte's Sandpiper are four in number. 

 They are pyriform in shape, smooth in texture, and 

 vary in ground colour from olive to grayish-buff, blotched 

 and spotted with dark reddish-brown and pale brown, 

 and with underlying markings of gray. As usual the 

 major half of the ^^% is the most heavily marked, many 

 of the blotches becoming confluent. Average measure- 

 ment, 1-25 inch in length, by "9 inch in breadth. The 

 duration of the period of incubation is unknown, as is 

 also which sex performs the duty. 



