MS BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



That particular affair of honour is over ; but, meanwhile, two or three similar 

 scenes have commenced, and over the whole ' hill ' there is incessant movement of 

 rival Ruffs, marching and counter-marching, scuffling and scuttling." Mr. Chap- 

 man has been a patient and observant student of his subject, and also knows how 

 to write ; many of our modern instructors seem to think the latter qualification 

 sufficient, considering the available stores of published information. 



Family S COL OP A CIDAL. 



BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



Tryngites rufescens, VlElLL. 



AN American straggler, of which about a dozen and a half examples have 

 been obtained in our islands, mostly in the south and south-east. Only 

 once killed on the Continent of Europe, in Heligoland. 



Its main breeding range is the High North of the American Continent, but 

 it has been found (and probably breeds) in Kamtschatka, near Behring Straits, and 

 further west, by Von Middendorf, in the sea of Okhotsk. It might be expected 

 to occur, therefore, on migration, on the east coast of Asia, but it has not yet 

 been reported thence, nor has it been found in Greenland. It occurs on migration 

 all over the United States and the West Indies, wintering in South America down 

 to about lat. S. 35. With us it occurs mostly in autumn, but the Heligoland 

 specimen was shot in May. 



Description of adult : upper parts sooty-black, with broad buff-brown edges to 

 all the feathers, largely obscuring the black ; primaries browner, their tips, and 

 those of the brown tail feathers, with a faint greenish gloss in certain lights ; the 

 inner web of the primaries mottled and blotched with black, upon white, especially 

 towards their tips ; sides of head and under surface of the body warm buff, with 



