SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 157 



tolerabl}- liigli, iiml where it is tlie custom to cut marsh hay. The 

 nest was of a decided shape, and was composed of the fine moss or 

 weed which yi-ows between the tussocks of marsh grass. This is the 

 only case of its breeding here to my knowdedge." 



This species not being common anywhere, there is not much 

 opportunity for obtaining positive information regarding its distri- 

 bution during the breeding season. It may be that the case referred 

 to by Dr. Macallum is an isolated one, but it may yet be found, like 

 its near relative, Bartram's Sandpiper, breeding occasionally in 

 suitable places throughout the country. The Buff-breasted has a 

 wide geographical range, and although many pairs breed in the far 

 north, a few remain and raise their young in the middle districts. 

 Those I obtained were got on the 5th of September, 1885, and, 

 though evidently young birds, were in good plumage at that time. 



In the " Birds of iVIanitoba," it is mentioned only as a rare 

 transient visitor. 



Uenls ACTITIS Illiger. 

 ACTITIS MACULARIA (Linx.). 



115. Spotted Sandpiper. (263) 



Above, olive (qiiaker-eolor, exactly as in the Cuckoo), with a coppery lustre, 

 finely varied witli black ; line over eye, and entire under parts pure white, with 

 numerous sharp circular black spots, larger and more crowded in the female 

 than in the mafe, entirely wanting in very young birds; secondaries, broadly 

 white-tipped, and inner primaries with a white spot; most of the tail feathers 

 like the back, with sub-terminal black bar and wliite tip; bill, pale yellow, 

 tipped with black ; feet, flesh color. Length, 7-8; wing, about 4; tail, about 2; 

 bill, tarsus and middle toe, each about 1. 



Hab. — Noi'th and South America, south to Brazil. Breeds throughout 

 temperate North America. Occasional in Europe. 



Nest, on the ground, usually in shelter of high weeds, composed of dried grass. 



Eggs, four, clay color, blotched with l)laukish-V)rown. 



No bird of its class is so well known throughout Ontario as the 

 "Teeter Snipe." Merry bands of children, getting out to the woods 

 to pick flowers in the early summer, listen with delight to its soft 

 " peet-weet," as it flits from point to point along the margin of the 

 stream, and find great amusement in watching the peculiar jerky, 

 teetering motions which give rise to its common name. It thus 

 becomes associated in the mind of the rising generation witfi the 

 return of summer and its many outdoor enjoyments, and so is always- 



