43 The Water-fowl Family 



BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER 

 (Tryngites subruficollis) 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage Upper parts, dull 

 ochraceous with a tinge of gray, each feather with a spot of 

 black ; often there is a glossy greenish tinge on the back ; 

 under parts, pale fawn color, palest on the abdomen and sides, 

 many of the feathers tipped with white ; axillary feathers, 

 white ; middle tail feathers, brown ; outer feathers, lighter, with 

 transverse lines of black on the terminal half, tipped with white ; 

 under primary coverts, marbled with black ; bill, greenish black ; 

 legs, greenish yellow ; iris, brown. 



Young Similar, but the upper parts have the black and fawn color 

 less sharply contrasted, and each feather is bordered with white ; 

 the marbling on the inner webs of primaries and on under- 

 coverts, more minute than in the adult. 



Measurements Length, 8 inches; wing, 5.50 inches; culmen, .75 

 inch; tarsus, 1.25 inches; middle toe, .75 inch. 



Eggs Four in number; ground color, ashy drab, blotched, and 

 streaked with spots of dark sepia; measure 1.50 by i.io inches. 



Habitat Breeds on the Barren Grounds and the Arctic Coast east 

 of the Anderson River, and at Point Barrow, Alaska, and prob- 

 ably in northeastern Siberia ; is reported a resident in British 

 Columbia, and is said to have nested in Ontario, this last 

 doubtless a mistake. Winters in South America to Uruguay 

 and Peru, and is said to winter on the coast of Louisiana. In 

 migrations in the United States, tolerably common in the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, and in the fall occasionally east to the Atlantic 

 Coast from Nova Scotia to South Carolina ; to the west of the 

 Mississippi states unrecorded, except in Texas and from Wash- 

 ington north to the Yukon, Alaska. Stragglers have occurred 

 in the West Indies, Bermuda, Sea of Okhotsk, and frequently 

 in western Europe. 



While this species has a general distribution, 

 it is more common in the interior than on the 

 coast. The buff-breasted sandpiper closely re- 

 sembles the upland plover in appearance, and to 



