BONAPARTE'S SANDPIPER. 



SCOLOPACID^.] 



TRINGA FUSCICOLLIS, Vieillot. 



Explanation of Plate. 



Barren Grounds [Arctic Coast] 1865 ; R. MacFarlane coll. No. 11329 U.S. National 

 Museum Collection. 



This American species is a rare accidental visitor, there being about a dozen 

 records of its occurrence in England and one in Ireland. 



Me. Howard Saunders writes as follows respecting the geographical distribution 

 of this species * : — " On the Continent of Europe this Sandpiper has not yet been 

 observed, for the T. schinzi of Brehm and some other ornithologists is a small 

 form of the Dunlin ; oiu- bird is, however, the T. schinzi of Bonaparte, and under 

 the name of Schinz's Sandpiper was figured and described in the 1st, 2nd, and 

 3rd editions of ' Yarrell.' It is said to have occurred at Reykjavik, Iceland, in 

 June 1860, and is certainly found in Greenland early in the autumn, while 

 generally distributed during summer throughout the Arctic regions of America as 

 far west as the Mackenzie region, where it breeds abundantly ; but in Alaska it 

 is rare, only two specimens having been obtained by Mr. Murdoch at Point Barrow. 

 On migration it is common in the Mississippi valley, and along the whole Atlantic 

 coast to Florida ; ranging southwards to the West Indies, Central America, 

 Colombia, Brazil, the River Plate States, the Falkland Islands, the Straits of 

 Magellan, and on the Pacific side, to Peru and Chili." 



Mr. R. MacFarlane, referring to this species, writes f : — " Several nests of 

 this Sandpiper were found on or near the Arctic coast of Franklin Bay. One of 

 these taken July 3 contained four eggs with very large embryos. Another 

 discovered on the following day held but three eggs. A third found in the Barren 

 Grounds on 29th June was, like the rest, a shallow cavity in the ground, lined 

 with a few decayed leaves, containing four eggs, also having very large embryos. 



* ' Manual of British Birds,' p. 567. 



t " Notes on and List of Birds and Eggs obtained in Arctic America, 1861-1866," ' Proceedings 

 of the r.S. National Museum,' vol. xiv. 1891, p. 426. 



