BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 147 



upper tail-coverts are white barred with black. The reddish 

 chestnut under parts are but slightly marked with grey ; the 

 axillaries are white. The bill and legs are black, the irides 

 brown. After the autumn moult the upper parts are ashy 

 brown, but faintly edged with white and buff on the back ; the 

 head is streaked, and the pale-brown face darkest on the 

 cheeks ; the upper tail-coverts and under parts are white. 

 The young have the breast and flanks washed with buff, and a 

 considerable amount of buff shows on the greyish-brown back. 

 Length, 8 ins. Wing, 5'i ins. Tarsus, r2 ins. 



Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Trymgites stibnificolHs 

 (Vieill). 



The. Buff-breasted Sandpiper nests in Arctic America and, 

 apparently, eastern Siberia, and winters in South America. It 

 has occasionally wandered to central Europe, and has reached 

 England and Ireland, most having been seen in eastern and 

 southern counties in September, though there are records for 

 spring and summer. Possibly this, and some other species of 

 American birds, may not have crossed the Atlantic, but have 

 travelled by the easier though much longer westward route. 

 It is not now possible to investigate the older records, including 

 the Lancashire specimen, said to have been obtained in May, 

 but some are not above suspicion. 



Mr. G. Caton Haigh, who shot one on the Lincolnshire coast, 

 confirms the remark of Saunders that the bird looks, both in 

 flight and plumage, like a very small Reeve. In summer dress 

 the upper as well as the under parts are buff, the former with 

 black and brown spots and mottles ; the outer tail feathers 

 are barred. Most of the under surface of the wing and the 

 axilliaries are white, but the secondaries and under wing- 

 coverts are marbled with black, as are the inner webs of the 

 quills. The winter dress closely resembles that of summer. 



