BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER 205 



BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER 



Tryngites rufescens 



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 ; length 7.7, wing 5.3 inches. Female 

 similar. 



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 Whimbrel, 

 and other northern species, I however think it 

 probable that it travels farther south than its fellow- 

 migrants from North America, and has its principal 

 feeding-grounds somewhere in the interior of Pata- 

 gonia ; 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, flock 

 succeeding flock at intervals of about fifteen minutes, 

 and continuing to pass for several days. 



