SCOLOPACIDyE. 



573 



THE AMERICAN STINT. 



TRINGA MINUTILLA (Vieillot). 



The American Stint has been obtained in this country on two 

 occasions. The first example was shot on a piece of wet grass- 

 land adjoining the sea-shore in Mount's Bay, Cornwall, on October 

 loth 1853, by W. S. Vingoe, who showed it to J. E. Rodd, by 

 whom it was recorded in ' The Zoologist,' p. 4297 ; the occurrence 

 being also noticed under the name of Tringa pjisilla in the Preface 

 (p. vi.) to the 3rd Edition of Yarrell's 'British Birds.' In Sep- 

 tember 1869 a second example was killed on Northam Burrows, 

 near Bideford, by Mr. Rickards of Clifton (Zool. s.s. p. 2025), who 

 brought the freshly-skinned specimen to Mr. Harting for his inspec- 

 tion, and its identity has been vouched for by that competent authority 

 (Hbk. Brit. Birds, p. 143). The species has, therefore, as good a 

 claim to be noticed in this work as many other stragglers ; but it 

 has not been considered necessary to figure it, as an engraving 

 would not adequately show the points of difference between it and 

 the Little Stint. The American bird is rather smaller, with a 

 proportionately longer bill, and is conspicuously darker at all 

 seasons ; in the breeding-plumage the fore part of the chest is 

 ashy-buff, with distinct spots of dark brown — not rufous with tiny 

 dots as in T. mimita ; and the legs are dusky olive-brown, whereas 

 n T. mimita they are black. 



This small Stint, called by American ornithologists the Least 

 Sandpiper, is widely distributed throughout the Arctic portions of 

 the New World, breeding as far south as Sable Island — a little 

 below Nova Scotia, as well as in Newfoundland, Labrador, and 

 the higher regions generally to Alaska. A limited number winter 

 in the Gulf States, but the majority pass onward to Mexico, the 

 West Indies, Central America and Brazil. In autumn large flocks 

 take an easterly direction as far as the Bermudas, while on the west 

 side the species is extremely common in Southern California. 



A nest found in Labrador by Audubon is described as a hollow 

 Hned with a few blades of dry grass, the locality chosen being 

 under the lee of a small rock, exposed to all the heat the sun can 

 afford in that country. The eggs, 4 in number, are of a rich 

 cream-yellow tint, blotched and dotted with very dark umber. 



