TRYNGITES RUFESCENS : BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 247 



color — ashy-brown, blackening at end, extreme tip white, most 

 of the inner webs of the primaries, and both webs of the second- 

 aries pearly-white, speckled, clouded and marbled with black. 

 Upper parts brownish-black with a greenish-gloss, each feather 

 edged with tawny or yellowish-brown, giving the prevailing tone. 

 Under parts buff or fawn-colored, unmarked excepting a few 

 blackish specks on the breast. Central tail-feathers greenish- 

 brown, blackening at the end, the others paler, often rufescent, 

 with white or tawny tips and black subterminal bar ; also, usually 

 some black marbling or streaking. Length, 7.50-8.25 : extent 

 about 16.00 ; wing, 5.10 ; tail, 1.50 ; bill along culmen 0.67-0.75 ; 

 along gape, i.oo ; tarsus, 1.20 ; middle toe and claw, i.oo. 



Fig. 57. — Head of Buff-breasted 

 Sandpiper. 



A curious little Sandpiper, of general distribution in 

 North America, apparently nowhere very common. It 

 is a spring and autumn 

 migrant only in New 

 England, quite rare in 

 the spring, less so in the 

 fall. It is easily recog- 

 nized by its special form, 

 and the curious mottling 

 of the wing-feathers, the 

 pattern of which is best displayed from the under side. 

 It appears to be most nearly related to the Bartramian, 

 with the habits of which its own to some extent corre- 

 spond. 



"Of the very rare and scarcely known eggs of the 

 Buff-breasted Sandpiper," says Coues, " I have examined 

 about a dozen sets in the Smithsonian, all collected by 

 Mr. MacFarlane in the Anderson River region and 

 along the Arctic coast to the eastward. They are very 

 pointedly pyriform. The following measurements indi- 

 cate the size, shape, and limits of variation : 1.50 X 1.03 ; 

 1.48 X 1. 10; 1.45 X I-02 ; 1.40 X 1.04. The ground is 



