BONAPARTE'S SANDPIPER. -375 



doubt that its breeding-grounds are in the northern portions 

 of the American continent, and eggs purporting to belong 

 to this species have been sent from Labrador and Hudson's 

 Bay, but as yet no authenticated specimens are known to 

 the Editor.* Richardson met with Bonaparte's Sandpiper on 

 the Saskatchewan, and on the 22nd May Dr. Elliott Coues 

 found it migrating northward in flocks on the Piepublican 

 Fork of the Kansas River, so that it probably ranges over 

 the intermediate ground. He describes it as a very abundant 

 bird along the whole Atlantic coast from Labrador in July, 

 August, and September, to the majority of the States as 

 far as Florida, but it does not appear to visit Alaska, or 

 even to pass west of the Rocky Mountains. It pushes its 

 migrations southwards to the West Indies, Central America, 

 and Colombia, Brazil, the River Plate States, the Falkland 

 Islands, and the Straits of Magellan ; and on the Pacific 

 side it has been obtained in Chili and Peru. 



Dr. E. Coues says that he frequently observed birds of 

 this species on rocky shores covered with seaweed, and 

 moist with the falling spray ; and that of all Sandpipers 

 it is the most gentle and confiding. When startled, they 

 emit a soft, low weet, different from the note of any other 

 Sandpiper, and fly ofl" in a very compact flock. f They fly 

 rapidly, in a very unsteady manner, alternately showing the 

 upper and under part ; and they may always be recognized, 

 in flight, by the conspicuously white upper tail- coverts. 

 They usually associate with the Semipalmated Sandpipers 

 and the Ring-plovers, and, in common with other small 

 species, are known by the general name of ' peeps.' 



The Author was indebted to the kindness of Mr. Audubon 

 for the specimen of this Sandpiper, from which the drawing 

 at the head of this subject and the following description 

 were taken. The bird is believed to have been killed in 



* The late Surgeon Anderson, of H.M.S. 'Enterprise,' when at Winter Cove, 

 Prince Albert Land, in 1852, obtained several birds and two eggs, wbich he 

 brought to England (Zoo). 1879, p. 7). L. Kiimlien (Bull. U. S. N. Mus. 

 No. 1.5, p. 86) says that this species breeds on the shores of Cumberland Sound. 



f Mr. Rodd says of the Cornish birds that the note was remarked to be 

 shorter and sharper than that of the Dunlin. 



