276 THE GAME BIBDS AND WILD FOWL 



Genus TRINGITES, or Buff=breasted Sandpipers. 



Type, TEINGITES EUFESCENS. 



Tringites, of Cabanis (1856). The birds comprising the present genus are 

 characterised by having the metatarsus longer than the culmen, and the central 

 retrices extending beyond the others. The bill is short, the culmen less than the 

 metatarsus in length. The wings are long and pointed, and the black mottling 

 on the inner webs of the primaries and secondaries is very noteworthy and 

 peculiar to the genus. The nostrils are lateral and situated in a groove. The 

 tibia just above the metatarsal joint is devoid of feathers : the hind toe is 

 present. 



This genus is composed of a single species only, distributed over the American 

 Continent from the Arctic regions south to the Primogsean realm. It is an 

 abnormal migrant to the British Islands. 



The habits, food, migrations, nidification, notes, etc., of this single species 

 are described in the following chapter. 



