582 BONAPARTE’S SANDPIPER. 
Indies, Central America, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, the Falkland 
Islands, the Straits of Magellan, and, on the Pacific side, to Peru 
and Chile. 
Authenticated eggs obtained by Mr. MacFarlane on the Barren 
grounds near the Arctic coast, have a rufous-drab ground-colour, and 
are boldly blotched with dark brown, especially at the larger end: 
measurements 1°35 by ‘95 in. The complete clutch consists of 4, 
and the nest is a mere depression in the ground, lined with a few 
decayed leaves. Dr. E. Coues says that he has frequently observed 
this bird on rocky shores covered with sea-weed and moist with 
the falling spray, and of all American Sandpipers it is the most 
gentle and confiding. When startled, it emits a soft, low weet, dif- 
ferent from the note of any other wader, flying off in very compact 
flocks in a vacillating manner, alternately showing the upper and 
under parts, and being easily recognized on the wing by the 
conspicuously white upper tail-coverts. It usually associates with 
Semipalmated Sandpipers, and, in common with other small 
species, is known by the name of “ Peep.” Rodd remarked that 
the call of the birds killed in Cornwall was shorter and sharper 
than that of the Dunlin. The food consists of insects, small 
crustaceans, marine animals &c. ; and with us, as in America, the 
bird appears to be pattial to rocks which are covered with sea-weed 
and slope down to the water. 
The adult in summer has a white streak over the eye; feathers 
of the upper parts ash-brown with dark centres, the edges being 
grey and rufous; quills dusky-brown; rump dark ash-brown ; 
upper tail-coverts chiefly white, though streaked laterally with brown, 
the central pair—which are not conspicuous—being dark ; tail- 
feathers ash-brown, except the central pair, which are dark brown, 
pointed, and elongated ; chin white; cheeks, neck, upper breast 
and flanks greyish-white, speckled and streaked with dusky- 
brown ; axillaries, belly and under tail-coverts white ; bill very short, 
straight, and nearly black ; legs and feet dark ‘olive. The female is 
a trifle the larger and more richly coloured. Length 7°25 in. 
(bill 9), wing 4°75 in. In winter the mantle is brownish-grey, and 
the streaks on the breast and flanks are less sharply defined. The 
young are more mottled with white and rufous on the back, while 
the throat and breast are suffused with buff. 
The trivial name is attributable to the fact that Schlegel named 
the species after Bonaparte, in ignorance of Vieillot’s earlier 
description. 
