320 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



The Buff-breasted Sandpiper is a bird which is not likely to be 

 mistaken for any other species, the singular and beautiful markings 

 on the under surface of the wings being sufficient to enable any 

 one readily to distinguish it. 



THE LITTLE STINT. 

 TRINGA MI NUT A. 



I AM not yet able to include this bird as a western species. It 

 appears to be sparingly distributed on the eastern coasts of 

 Scotland, from Berwickshire to the Shetland Islands, where, ac- 

 cording to Dr Saxby, it is a regular winter visitor in small numbers. 

 I have observed it in East Lothian, Fifeshire, and Forfarshire, and 

 so far as my own observations enable me to judge, it is somewhat 

 solitary in its habits. On two or three occasions I have met with 

 single specimens not mixing with other sandpipers. It has like- 

 wise been found in the north of Caithness; and I find that a note 

 in MS. by Messrs Baikie and Heddle, states its occurrence at Sanday 

 in 1848. Specimens were procured in Banffshire, in 1855, and at 

 Fraserburgh, in Aberdeenshire, in September, 1854; Macgillivray 

 mentions the occurrence of several flocks in that county in 1841, 

 but only one specimen was obtained. Of late years numerous 

 specimens have been obtained near Aberdeen, by Mr Alexander 

 Mitchell, who informs me that he procures them regularly every 

 winter. Mr Angus here also met with the species repeatedly, and 

 has killed as many as four at one shot. A specimen in my collec- 

 tion was forwarded to me in the flesh, in August, 1869, by Mr 

 Angus, who states that the Little Stint may be looked upon as a 

 regular winter visitant. Writing again on 1st October, 1870, he 

 says: "The Little Stint has occurred in unusually large numbers 

 this winter, on the sandy portion of the coast, near Aberdeen. 

 Last month, at the ' Black Dog,' I saw as many as thirty in one 

 flock, and on several occasions I have seen flocks of six to twelve 

 at low tide, between the bridge of Don and the mouth of the river; 

 while stragglers were to be seen here and there during the second 

 and third weeks of the month. A correspondent sent me eighteen 

 specimens, the result of a right and left into a flock at Charlie's 

 Pot, near the mouth of the Ythan. At Don mouth I killed a 

 number, mostly young birds." Mr Harvie Brown has also met 



