BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 63 



ever," says the author, " that I can say nothing respecting 

 the habits or haunts of this bird, further than, that having 

 seen a wing of it in the possession of my friend Sir James 

 Clark Ross, I think it probable that it breeds near the 7 

 Arctic Circle, as he received the wing from the sailors, who 

 had found it in the course of one of the numerous inland 

 excursions in the desolate regions, from which these in- 

 trepid navigators have recently returned." 



This species is readily distinguished from all the other 

 birds of this genus by the peculiar markings of the under 

 surface of the wings. 



The plumage and the state of the ossification of the tarsi, 

 prove my specimen to be a young bird of the year ; the 

 specimen obtained at Sherringham, of which Mr. John 

 Sims sent me a coloured drawing, and Mr. Heysham's ex- 

 ample, I believe to be also young birds, but whether they 

 had wandered from the north-eastern shores of America to 

 the arctic portion of Lapland, and had from thence accom- 

 panied the Dotterell, or other birds, in their southern 

 autumnal visit to this country, or had been bred in the 

 marshes of the counties in which they were killed, can only 

 be conjectured. M. Nilsson does not include it in his 

 Fauna of Scandinavia. 



The beak is slender, and very slightly curved, three- 

 quarters of an inch in length, and greenish black ; from the 

 point to the gape it measures one inch, and from the gape 

 to the occiput is also one inch : the hides hazel ; the fea- 

 thers on the top of the head dark brown, approaching to 

 black, each feather edged with very light brown, giving a 

 mottled appearance ; the back of the neck light brown, the 

 dark spots formed by the centre of each feather minute ; 

 the back very dark brown, the extreme edges only of the 

 feathers light brown ; the wing-coverts brown ; the pri- 

 maries nearly black, tipped with white ; the shafts white ; 



