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 YarRreE.w’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 offermg 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 Witsow in his delightful 
work, or in the continuation of the same by M. Cuartzes 
Buonararte, 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 “ Hlustrations of Ornithology” 
by Sir Wirt1am Jarpine, &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 Yarrexv’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 australis of LarHam’s Index Ornithologicus has no re- 
ference to this bird, being merely a synonym of the Knot (T'ringa canutus). 
5 
