462 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



grasshoppers, crickets, grains, and seeds. They are then in 

 good condition, and of delicate flavor on the table, and are 

 much pursued by sportsmen ; but, as they are swift-flying 

 birds, and very shy, it requires a more than ordinary shot to 

 bag many of them. 



TRYXGITES, CABANIS. 



Tringites, CABANIS, Jour, fur Orn. (1856), 418. (Type Tringa rufescens. 

 Vieillot.) 



Upper mandible grooved to about the terminal fourth ; the lower not quite so 

 far; culmen and gonys about straight; mouth deeply cleft more than half-way to 

 the eye; the culmen about two-thirds the commissure; culmen much shorter than the 

 head, and about equal to middle toe without claw; tarsus about one and one-sixth 

 as long as middle toe and claw; bare part of tibia decidedly shorter than middle toe 

 without claw; toes cleft to the base, with only a very rudimentary web; upper jaw 

 feathered to the nostrils ; the side of the lower and beneath feathered much further, 

 or to the end of the nostrils ; the interspace of the rami entirely filled ; tail some- 

 what graduated, not half the wing. 



TRYNGITES RUFESCENS. Cabanis. 

 The Buff-breasted Sandpiper. 



Tringa rufescens, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 113. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 

 451. Jb., Birds Am., V. (1842) 264. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Bill about the length of the head, straight, compressed, narrow at the point; 

 nasal groove long; wings very long; first quill longest; tertiaries rather shorter; 

 tail moderate or longer than usual in this group; legs rather long; lower third of the 

 tibia naked; toes free at base, flattened underneath, and slightly margined; hind 

 toe small; upper parts pale and dull ashy-brown with a yellowish tinge; every 

 feather with a large central, lanceolate, crescent-shaped, or oblong spot of black, 

 frequently with a glossy -green tinge, especially on the back and shorter tertiaries; 

 under parts light yellowish-red, or pale-fawn color; many feathers tipped with white, 

 and paler on the flanks and abdomen, on the breast with partially concealed small 

 spots of black; axillary feathers white; quills with their outer webs light-brown, 

 inner webs ashy-white, marbled with black and narrowly tipped with white; middle 

 tail feathers brownish-black ; outer feathers lighter, with transverse waved lines of 

 black, and tipped with white; bill black; legs greenish-yellow; iris hazel. 



Total length, seven and a half to eight inches; wings, five and a half; tail, 

 three; bill, from gape, one; tarsus, one and a quarter inches. 



Hab. All of North America, South America, Europe. 



This is a little bird of rather peculiar style of form, and of remarkable and hand- 

 some plumage. Its relationship appears to be to the preceding well-known species. 

 Both this and the preceding bird more habitually frequent plains and other dry 

 localities than any of the true Sandpipers. 



