260 SNIPES AND SANDPIPERS 



cult to distinguish them from their surroundings. One may ride over 

 a prairie upon which, at first glance, not a Plover is visible, and find, 

 after careful scrutiny, that dozens of birds are scattered about him 

 feeding. This, at least was my experience near Corpus Christi, Texas, 

 in April, 1891, but market hunters were then killing as many as sixty 

 birds a day, and years of this kind of persecution have greatly reduced 

 the numbers of these birds even in the thinly settled West. In the 

 East it now breeds only locally, but Eaton states that it is increasing in 

 Western New York. 



In alighting, the birds stretch their wings to the utmost, high over 

 their backs, as if to get the wrinkles out before gently folding them. 

 When flushed they utter a soft, bubbling whistle. During their migra- 

 tions one may clearly hear these sweet notes from birds traveling beyond 

 the limits of human vision. Langille describes their alarm note as a 

 spirited and rapidly uttered quip-ip-ip-ip, quip-ip-ip-ip, and their 

 song, given from the ground, a fence, or even a tree, as chr-r-r-r-r-ee-e-e- 

 e-e-e-oo-o-o-o-o-oo. He remarks: "This prolonged, mournful, mellow 

 whistle, more like the whistling of wind than a bird's voice, may be 

 heard even in the night, and is one of the most weird and never-to-be- 

 forgotten sounds in Nature." 



262. Tryngites subruficollis (VieilL). BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 

 Ads. Upperparts greenish black widely margined with pale grayish brown; 

 primaries fuscous, inner half of their inner webs speckled with black; longer 

 under wing-coverts conspicuously marked and tipped with black, then white; 

 central tail-feathers fuscous, outer ones becoming buffy, irregularly marked 

 and tipped with black and buffy; underparts pale ochraeeous-buff, tipped 

 with whitish, and with generally concealed black markings. Juv. Similar, 

 but back fuscous narrowly margined or ringed with whitish. L., 8*50; W., 

 5'25; B., '80. 



Remarks. In any plumage this bird may be known by the peculiar 

 speckling on the inner webs of all the primaries, and also the markings of 

 the under wing-coverts. 



Range. N. and S. A. Breeds along the Arctic coast from n. Alaska to 

 n. Keewatin; winters in Argentina and Uruguay; most abundant in migra- 

 tion in the Miss. Valley; occasional on the Atlantic coast in fall; casual on 

 the Pacific coast n. to St. Michael, Alaska, and to ne. Siberia; straggles to 

 Bermuda and frequently to w. Europe. 



Long Island, rare T. V., Aug. and Sept. SE. Minn., uncommon T. V. 



Eggs, 3-4, buffy grayish white, varying to pale olive-buff, boldly spotted 

 longitudinally (and somewhat spirally) with dark vandyke- or madder-brown 

 and purplish gray, T53 x 1*04 (Ridgw.). Date, Pt. Barrow, Alaska, June 20 



This is a rare species on the Atlantic coast. Dr. Hatch writes of 

 it as observed by him in Minnesota: "They are an extremely active 

 species when on the wing, and essentially ploverine in all respects, 

 seeking sandy, barren prairies, where they live upon grasshoppers, 

 crickets, and insects generally, and ants and their eggs specially. I 

 have found them repasting upon minute mollusks on the sandy shores 

 of small and shallow ponds, where they were apparently little more 

 .suspicious than the Solitary Sandpipers are notably. The flight is in 

 rather compact form, dipping and rising alternately, and with a dis- 



