Tlic Stints. 



[8- 



THE 



BUFF-BREASTED 



SANDPIPER. 



(Tringites 

 subrujicollis.) 



THE 



SANDERLING. 



(Calidris arenaria.) 



American species, which has occurred in England and Ireland on several occasions 

 in the autumn and winter. At this season of the year it wanders to South America, 

 and has even been captured in Australia. 



With the present species commences the Sub-family 

 Scolopachuv, or Snipes and Sandpipers. They are distinguished 

 from the Totanimc by having the toes cleft to the base, with no 

 web between them. In the genus Tringites the bill is short, 

 measuring less than the length of the tarsus, and the centre 

 tail-feathers are not produced beyond the others. The Buff- 

 breasted Sandpiper is a North American bird, which has occurred about sixteen 

 times in the British Islands. It is a very conspicuous species by reason of the 

 mottling on the under side of the primary-quills. {See p. 182.) 

 The Sanderling differs 

 from all the other species of 

 Sandpipers in the absence 

 of the hind-toe. It is a very 

 pretty bird, especially in summer, with the bright 

 rufous colour of the upper parts, and its chestnut 

 throat and breast ; but in autumn it looks 

 much whiter than any of its allies, and 

 only the Kentish Plover presents the same 

 appearance on the shore. The Sanderling breeds 

 in the Arctic Regions of Siberia and North 

 America, but very few authentic eggs have as 

 yet been taken. In autumn and winter it is a 



very common bird on all our coasts, and ranges to Africa, as well as India, Australia 

 and South America. When noticed in England, it is either consorting with 

 Dunlins and other Waders, or it goes in flocks consisting mostly of young birds of its 

 own species. Colonel Fedden found the nest in Grinnell Land at a height of several 

 hundred feet above the sea : it was a depression in the centre of a recumbent plant 

 of the Arctic Willow, and had a few dead lea\es and catkins for its lining. The eggs 

 are four in number, a little more than an inch-and-a-quarter in length, of a pale 

 olive-brown, faintly mottled and spotted with brown and violet-grey. 



The Stints have a hind-toe and a very short bill, and they are 

 all very elegant little birds, being remarkabl}' tame in their 



Thk Sanderling. 



THE LITTLE 

 STINT. 



(himunites inhinia.) 



arctic breeding-haunts, so much so that they scarcely move 



from their nest when it is being rifled, and Mr. Pearson tells of 

 one that actually sat on his gun. The Little Stint belongs to the section of the 

 genus which has the tail-feathers smoky-brown : it has blackish legs, and is dis- 

 tinctly of a rufous shade both in old individuals and young birds of the year, while, 

 in winter, the old birds are ashy above and white below. To Great Britain the Little 

 Stint is a visitor during the spring and autumn migrations, but does not breed with 



