104 



TEINGA RUFESCENS. THE BUFF-BREASTED 

 SANDPIPER. 



Tringa rufegcens. Vieill. Gall, des Oiseaux. II. 105. 

 Tringa rufescens. Yarrell. Linn. Trans. XVI. 109. 

 Buff-breasted Tringa. Tringa rufescens. Selby, Illustr. II. 142. 

 Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Tringa rufescens. And. Oruith. Biogr. III. 451 

 Tringa rufescens. Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Jenyns, Brit. Vert. Anim. 214. 

 Tringa rufescens. Bonap. Comp. List, 50. 



Bill not longer than the head, straight; tail with the 

 middle feathers considerably longer, the three lateral nearly 

 equal; tarsus an inch and a third in length; bill dull olive- 

 green ; feet dull yellowish-green. Plumage in summer blackish- 

 brown above, each feather margined with greyish-yellow; the 

 sides of the head and neck, with the fore part of the latter, a 

 small portion of the breast, and the sides of the body light 

 reddish-yellow, streaked with brownish-black ; the throat, 

 breast, and abdomen yellowish-white; quills light greyish- 

 brown, darker at the end, their inner icebs whitish, with 

 transverse curved lines and dots of black; the tail with the 

 middle feathers brown, dusky toward the end, and edged with 

 white, the rest gradually paler, edged with white, within 

 which is a black line. 



Male in Summer. — This species, of which two indi- 

 viduals are recorded as having been shot in England, I 

 describe from American specimens. It is very closely allied 

 in form to Tringa pectoralis, as well as to the females and 

 young of Tringa pugnax of Linnaeus, although much inferior 

 in size, and destitute of the ruff which forms so conspicuous 

 a feature in the male of that bird ; and is distinguished from 

 all our Tringa? by the beautiful markings on the inner webs 

 of its primary quills. The body is rather slender ; the neck 



