SHORE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



47 



TRINQA BAIRDII (Coues). 

 Baird's Sandpiper. 



Summer plumage : Crown, dark brown, mixed with buft'; 

 nape and upper back, narrowly streaked with buff and dark 

 brown; the feathers of the back, dark brown, narrowly 

 edged with white ; upper tail coverts, blackish ; the 

 feathers usually narrowly tipped with buff ; two central 

 tail feathers, very slightly longer than the others, not 

 decidedly longer, as in Tringa maculata; chin, white; 

 breast, brownish buff, showing very faint and narrow 

 streaks of brown; under parts, butty white, with a faint 

 tinge of butt', sometimes entirely white. 



bainlii. 



Winter plumage : Similar, but paler. 



Immature: Resembles the adult, but has the feathers of 

 the back and wing coverts tipped with white. 



Length, 7.40; wing, 4.50 to 4.90; tarsus, 1; bill, 1. 



Baird's Sandpiper is an inland species, which 

 ranges from the British Provinces to Western South 

 America. It is a rare bird on the Atlantic coast, 

 although occasionally taken during the migrations. It may always be distin- 

 guished from the White-ruin ped Sandpiper by its dark upper tail coverts, and 

 from the Pectoral Sandpiper by the absence of the elongated middle tail 

 feathers. This species is not known to occur on the Pacific coast. It breeds 

 in the Arctic regions. The eggs are usually four, pale brown or cream buff, 

 spotted with chestnut brown. 



