190 SCOLOPACID.E. 



skulking habits, and reluctance to fly it is more like a Rail than a 

 Snipe. It also, Rail-like, frequently alights on trees and fences, a 

 habit I have not remarked in any other Limicoline species. 



It inhabits the pampas from September until March ; but early in 

 February the great return-migration begins, and then for two months 

 the mellow cry of the Batitu is heard far up in the sky, at all hours, day 

 and night, as the birds wing their way north. In some seasons strag- 

 glers are found throughout the month of April, but before the winter 

 arrives not one is left. 



407. TRYNGITES RUFESCENS (VieilL). 

 (BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER.) 



Tryngites rufescens, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 146; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, 

 p. 200 (Buenos Ayres) ; Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water- B. N. A. i. p. 305 ; 

 Saunders, Yarrell's Birds, iii. p. 435. Tringa rufescens, Seebohm, Plovers, 

 p. 446. 



Description. Above dark brownish black, each feather widely edged with 

 buff; wings blackish, narrowly tipped with white, the inner half of the inner 

 web whitish reticulated with black ; tail blackish, the outer rectrices lighter, 

 each with subterminal black crescent and white terminal edge : beneath buff, 

 darker on the throat and breast, and edged with whitish, lighter on flanks and 

 belly ; under primary-coverts barred and reticulated with black, like the inner 

 web of the primaries, and forming a marked contrast with the rest of the under 

 surface of the wing, which is pure white : whole length 7*7 inches, wing 5*3, 

 tail 2-5. Female similar. 



Hob. Arctic America, descending south to Buenos Ayres in winter. 



This species is also an annual visitor to the pampas from the Arctic 

 regions where it breeds. It begins to arrive, usually in small bodies, 

 early in the month of October ; and during the summer is seldom met 

 with in flocks of any size on the pampas, but is usually seen on the dry 

 open ground associating in small numbers with the Golden Plover, the 

 Whim brel, and other northern species. I, however, think it probable that 

 it travels further south than its fellow-migrants from North America, 

 and has its principal feeding-grounds somewhere in the interior of 

 Patagonia; also that its northern journey takes place later than that of 

 other species. In some seasons I have observed these birds in April 

 and May, in flocks of two to five hundred, travelling north, the birds 

 flying very low, flock succeeding flock at intervals of about fifteen 

 minutes, and continuing to pass for several davs. 



