WATER BIRDS. l99 



heads on the chest, brace-shaped on the breast and plain bars on the sides, the belly and 

 under tail-coverts unmarked. Upper mandible and tip of lower black, rest of bill yellow; 

 legs and feet gray or greenish gray. Sexes alike. Young: Similar to adult, but more 

 yellowish or buffy, and the dark markings below fewer and less distinct. Length 11 to 

 12.75 inches; wing 6.50 to 7; culmen 1.10 to 1.15; tarsus 1.90 to 2.05. 



ni09. Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Tryngites subruficollis (Vieill.). (262) 



Synonyms: Tringa subruficollis, Vieill., 1819. — Tryngites rufescens of most authors. 



A small sandpiper with much the form and habits of the preceding species, 

 but not easily described for recognition by the novice. Reference to the 

 detailed description will be necessary, and careful examination of the 

 measurements and proportions. 



Distribution. — North America, especially in the interior; breeds in the 

 Yukon district and the interior of British America, northward to the 

 Arctic coast; South America in winter as far as Uruguay and Peru. Of 

 frequent occurrence in EurojDe. 



This is a rare sandpiper in Michigan and very few specimens have been 

 taken. Dr. Gibbs states that on September 17, 1875, he secured a pair, 

 the only ones he ever saw. They were taken while hunting for Golden Plover 

 on the Big Marsh one and one-half miles north of Kalamazoo. He further 

 states that on September 14, 1882, B. F. Syke, of Kalamazoo, secured three 

 specimens of this species and preserved one for his collection. There were 

 but three in the flock; they were found on Grand Prairie, Kalamazoo 

 county, and were very shy. There is a Buff-breasted Sandpiper (No. 

 20315) in the Kent Scientific Museum, Grand Rapids, but it was taken at 

 Toronto, Ontario. 



The above are the only records for the state of which I know, but Stock- 

 well includes this species in his hst of Michigan birds (Forest & Stream, 

 VIII, 361). According to Kumlien & Holhster, it is one of the rarest 

 shore birds in that state (Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, 51). It is also rare 

 ordinarily in Indiana and lUinois, but in August 1874, Dr. A. K. Fisher 

 found hundreds of them on the dry prairie at Maywood, Cook county 

 Ilhnois, only ten miles from Chicago, and shot numbers of them (Cooke, 

 Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley, 1888, p. 97). There are also 

 records for Ohio and Ontario, but the species is nowhere common. 



It breeds in the far north, the Saskatchewan Plains and the Barren 

 Grounds being favorite resorts. The eggs are buffy white, boldly spotted 

 with dark bronze and purplish, and average 1.53 by 1.04 inches. 



There is a record by Mcllwraith (Birds of Ont., 1894, 156) of the nesting 

 of this species at Dunville, Ontario, June 10, 1879, but it has transpired 

 recently that this was a mistake and that the nest and eggs recorded really 

 belonged to Wilson's Phalarope (Macoun, Cat. Canadian Birds, Part III, 

 1904, 732). 



^^ TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



No trace of webs between the front toes; bill barely as long as the head, or even shorter. 

 "Upper parts dull grayish buff or brownish, varied with blackish; lower parts buff, streaked 

 or speckled on chest with dusky; axillars white; under ])rimary coverts and inner webs 

 of quills [primaries] beautifully mottled or speckled with dusky on a wliitisli groimd. 

 Adult: Feathers of back, etc., blackish centrally, and without whitish borders. Young: 

 Feathers of back, etc. distinctly bordered with whitisli, tlie black and brown less sharply 

 contrasted; mottHng on inner webs of quills, and imder primary coverts, mucli more 

 minute and delicate than in adult. Length 7 to 8.90 inclics; wing 5.10 to 5.50; culmen 

 .75 to .80; tarsus 1.15 to 1.30" (Ridgway). 



