TRINGA. GRALLATORES. TRINGA. 143 



rish of Melbourne in Cambridgeshire, being in company 

 with some of the Common Dottrel (Charadrius Morinellus). 

 This individual soon after passed into Mr YARRELI/S pos- 

 session, and now enriches his valuable cabinet of British 

 birds ; and it is to the kind and liberal attention of this emi- 

 nent naturalist, in offering me the free use of his collection, 

 that I am enabled to give a correct delineation of this, as 

 well as of other rare British birds. This is an American 

 species, and inhabits Louisiana ; but even on that continent 

 it appears to be of rare occurrence, or very locally distri- 

 buted, as it is not mentioned by WILSON in his delightful 

 work, or in the continuation of the same by M. CHARLES 

 BUONAPARTE, Prince of Musignano. The only specimen, 

 indeed, hitherto described, or even noticed, appears to be 

 that in the Parisian Museum, and which served VIEILLOT 

 and others to identify it as a species. Of its habits I am 

 unable to give any account ; but, from the circumstance of 

 its having been killed at a distance from the coast, it pro- 

 bably frequents the lakes and rivers of the interior of the 

 American continent. In the length and form of its bill, as 

 well as in dimensions and bulk of body, it approaches near 

 to the species described in the " Illustrations of Ornithology" 

 by Sir WILLIAM JARDINE, &c. under the 'specific title of 

 Tringa australis *, which is a native of the coasts of New 

 Holland, and from whence the specimens were received. 

 The Buff-breasted Tringa, independent of the prevailing 

 tint of the lower part of its body (from which arises its tri- 

 vial appellation), is easily recognised from all the other 

 known species by the peculiar markings and speckled ap- 

 pearance of the under surface of the wings. The specimen 

 in Mr YARRELL'S collection, from the plumage, and state of 

 ossification of the tarsi, is supposed by him to be the young 

 of the year ; that at Paris appears to be an adult bird. 



* The Tringa auslralis of LATHAM'S Index Ornithologicus has no re- 

 ference to this bird, being merely a synonym of the Knot (Tringa canutvs). 



