BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER 



109 



to be at first somewhat less active than those of other waders. The 

 eggs, although larger, are very like those of a snipe ; the ground-colour 

 varying from pale grey to olive-green, and the markings taking the 

 form of spots and blotches of dark brown or umber, which are aggre- 

 gated as a kind of cap at the larger end ; the deep-seated markings 

 consisting of purplish-brown smears and cloudings. The ruff measures 

 12^ inches in length and weighs 6 oz,, while the reeve is 2 inches 

 shorter and 2 oz. lighter. Eggs measure from just over i^, inches 

 to slightly more than i| inches. 



Buff-breasted 

 Sandpiper 

 (Tringites 



subruficollis). 



Eight recorded occurrences in England during a 

 whole century scarcely entitle Bartram's sandpiper 

 {Bartraviia longtcaiida, Act it urns longicaudus, or A. 

 bartraviias), of America, to be reckoned as a British 

 bird, and it is accordingly only mentioned here 

 incidentally, without a separate inset for its name. It represents a 

 genus by itself, characterised, among other features, by the relatively 

 short beak and long tail. The same remark applies still more forcibly 

 to the case of the American 

 half-webbed (or semi-palm- 

 ated) sandpiper {Ereimetes 

 pHsillus), of which an ex- 

 ample was killed in Kent 

 in September i 907. This 

 bird is much like a stint, 

 but has short v/ebs at the 

 ba.ses of the toes. On the 

 other hand, it is somewhat 

 difficult, although perhaps 

 illogical, to refuse recogni- 

 tion to a third American 

 species, namely, the buff- 

 breasted sandpiper, of 

 which seventeen examples 

 were recorded in the 

 British Islands during the nineteenth century. This bird, which 

 will be found entered in some ornithological works as Triiigites 

 rufescens, is likewise the sole representative of its genus, and differs 

 from all the preceding members of the subfamily Totaninae by the 

 shortness of its beak and the complete absence of webbing between the 

 toes. It must suffice to mention that this bird, which measures 8 inches 



BUFF-Kkl.ASI KI; SANDPIPER. 



( From a specimen in the British Museum. ) 



