OF THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. I3I 



Buff-breasted has a wide geographical range, and that although 

 many pairs breed in the far north, a few remain and raise 

 their young in the middle districts. Those I obtained were got 

 on the 5th of September, 1885, and, though evidently young 

 birds, were in good plumage at that time. 



Genus ACTITIS Illiger. 

 108. ACTITIS MACULARIA (Linn.). 263. 



Spotted Sandpiper. 



Above, olive (quaker-color, exactly as in the Cuckoo), with a coppery 

 lustre, finely varied with black ; line over eye, and entire under-parts pure 

 white, with numerous sharp circular black spots, larger and more crowded in 

 the female than in the male, entirely wanting in very young birds ; 

 secondaries broadly white-tipped, and inner primaries with a white spot ; 

 most of the tail feathers like the back with sub-terminal black bar and white 

 tip ; bill pale-yellow, tipped with black ; feet flesh-color. Length, 7-8 ; 

 wing about 4 ; tail, about 2 ; bill, tarsus and middle toe, each about i. 



Hab. North and South America, south to Brazil. Breeds throughout 

 temperate North America. Occasional in Europe. 



Nest on the ground not far from water, composed of dried grass. 



Eggs 4 ; clay-color, blotched with blackish-brown. 



No bird of its class is so well known throughout Ontario as 

 the "Teeter Snipe." 



Merry bands of children, getting out to the woods to pick 

 flowers in the early summer listen with delight to its soft "peet 

 weet," as it flits from point to point along the margin of the 

 stream, and find great amusement in watching the peculiar 

 jerky teetering motions which give rise to its common name. 

 It thus becomes associated in the mind of the rising generation 

 with the return of summer and its many outdoor enjoyments, 

 and so is always welcome. About the middle of April the Peet- 

 Weets cross our Southern boundary and are soon dispersed in 

 pairs all over the country, where they are heard and seen by 

 every brook-side till about the end of September, ,when they 

 move off to spend the winter in the Southern States. In the 



