CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 1 73 



Breeding Notes. — This species arrives at Point Barrow about 

 the end of May or early in June, and frequents the small ponds 

 and marshy portions of the tundra along the shore, sometimes 

 associated with other small waders, especially with the buff-breasted 

 sandpiper, on the high banks or the Nunava. They begin pairing 

 soon after their arrival, and are frequently to be seen chasing each 

 other in the air with a loud chatter. The nest is always built in 

 in the grass, with a decided preference for high and dry localities, 

 such as the banks of gullies and streams. It is sometimes placed 

 at the edge of a small pool, but always in grass and in a dry place, 

 never in the black clay and moss, like the plover and buff-breasted 

 sandpiper, or in a marsh like the phalaropes. All the complete sets 

 contained four eggs. {Murdoch.) 



240. White-rumped Sandpiper. 



Actodromas fuscicollis (Vieill.) Bonaparte. 1856. 



Believed by Holboell to breed near Julianshaab, Greenland, where 

 both old and young birds have been seen. {Arct. Man.) A few 

 skins taken in Greenland since 1840. Perhaps a few breed. 

 (Winge.) Rather common on the meadows bordering Button bay. 

 A number noted on the Barren Grounds below Cape Eskimo, Hud- 

 son bay. {Preble.) In flocks on the west coast of James bay in 

 August. {Spreadbo rough.) A common migrant along the whole 

 Atlantic coast and Gulf of St. Lawrence as well as the river up to 

 Montreal, becoming scarcer in Ontario and increasing again in Man- 

 itoba where it is common as a migrant. A few seen as far west 

 as Crane lake, Sask. A few must breed around Indian Head, Sask., 

 as they were observed there from May 9th to July ist, 1892, when 

 Spreadborough left. Sir John Richardson says this species^ is not 

 infrequent on the shores of the small lakes that skirt the Saskat- 

 chewan plains. Murdoch records the shooting of two birds of this 

 species at Point Barrow and Mcllhenny five specimens at the same 

 place; these are the only Alaskan records. Payne says they occur 

 in large flocks in late summer at Cape Wales, Hudson strait, but 

 do not breed. Both Spreadborough and Turner found them in 

 large numbers in Ungava bay, Labrador, in the autumn, and Mac- 

 farlane found a few breeding on the shores of Franklin bay, Arctic 

 sea. Their chief breeding-ground would seem to be north of Hud- 



