53 o THE BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



No. 247. 



BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



A. O. U. No. 262. Tryngites subruficollis (Vieill). 



Description. Adult : Upper parts dull grayish buff or grayish brown varied 

 by blackish or olive-brown centers of feathers ; under parts buff, dotted and 

 streaked on sides of breast with blackish ; the inner webs of the primaries, both 

 webs of the secondaries, and the tips of the larger under wing-coverts speckled 

 with black; axillars white; bill dusky; feet and legs greenish yellow. Immature: 

 Like adult, but feathers of back, etc., rounded, distinctly bordered with whitish, the 

 speckling of wing-quills and under coverts finer than in adults. Length 7.25-8.75 

 (184.2-222.3); wing 5.23 (132.8); tail 2.33 (59.2); bill .77 (19.6); tarsus 1.20 

 (30-5). 



Recognition Marks. Chewink size ; general buffiness of coloration ; short, 

 straight, blackish bill ; black speckling on wing-quills and under coverts dis- 

 tinctive. 



Nesting. Does not breed in Ohio. Eggs, 3 or 4, buffy grayish white, vary- 

 ing to pale olive, boldly spotted longitudinally (and somewhat spirally) with dark 

 Vandyke or madder brown and purplish gray (Ridgw.). Av. size, 1.47 x 1.06 

 (37.3 x 26.9). 



General Range. North America especially in the interior; breeds in the 

 Yukon district and in the interior of British America northward to the Arctic 

 Coast ; South America in winter as far as Uruguay and Peru. Of frequent occur- 

 rence in Europe. 



Range in Ohio. "Rare migrant, only noted in the fall." Wheaton. No 

 record since 1876. 



OF this species comparatively little is known since it is reckoned a rare 

 migrant anywhere in the Middle States. It is said to resemble the Bartra- 

 mian Sandpiper in habits, and to prefer high grassy land for a range instead 

 of wet bottoms and ponds. The customary breeding range of the species is 

 in remote northern latitudes, but Mcllwraith in his "Birds of Ontario," 

 records the taking of a nest of this species "a few miles back from the north 

 shore of Lake Erie" on June loth, 1879, as reported to him by Dr. G. A. 

 Macallum of Dunnville. 



"The nest was placed beween two tussocks of grass on the ground, a short 

 distance from the bank of the river, where the ground is tolerably high, and 

 where it is the custom to cut marsh hay. The nest was of a decided shape, 

 and was composed of the fine moss or weed which grows between the tussocks 

 of marsh grass. This is the only case of its breeding here to my knowledge." 



