WATER BIRDS. 199 
heads on the chest, brace-shaped on the breast and plain bars on the sides, the belly and 
under tail-coverts unmarked. Upper mandible and tip of lower black, rest of bill yellow; 
legs and feet gray or greenish gray. Sexes alike. Young: Similar to adult, but more 
yellowish or buffy, and the dark markings below fewer and less distinct. Length 11 to 
12.75 inches; wing 6.50 to 7; culmen 1.10 to 1.15; tarsus 1.90 to 2.05. 
109. Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Tryngites subruficollis (Vierll.). (262) 
Synonyms: Tringa subruficollis, Vieill., 1819.—Tryngites rufescens of most authors. 
A small sandpiper with much the form and habits of the preceding species, 
but not easily described for recognition by the novice. Reference to the 
detailed description will be necessary, and careful examination of the 
measurements and proportions. 
Distribution.—North America, especially in the interior; breeds in the 
Yukon district and the interior of British America, northward to the 
Arctic coast; South America in winter as far as Uruguay and Peru. Of 
frequent occurrence in Europe. 
This is a rare sandpiper in Michigan and very few specimens have been 
taken. Dr. Gibbs states that on September 17, 1875, he secured a pair, 
the only ones he ever saw. They were taken while hunting for Golden Plover 
on the Big Marsh one and one-half miles north of Kalamazoo. He further 
states that on September 14, 1882, B. F. Syke, of Kalamazoo, secured three 
specimens of this species and preserved one for his collection. There were 
but three in the flock; they were found on Grand Prairie, Kalamazoo 
county, and were very shy. There is a Buff-breasted Sandpiper (No. 
20315) in the Kent Scientific Museum, Grand Rapids, but it was taken at 
Toronto, Ontario. 
The above are the only records for the state of which I know, but Stock- 
well includes this species in his list of Michigan birds (Forest & Stream, 
VIII, 361). According to Kumlien & Hollister, it is one of the rarest 
shore birds in that state (Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, 51). It is also rare 
ordinarily in Indiana and Illinois, but in August 1874, Dr. A. K. Fisher 
found hundreds of them on the dry prairie at Maywood, Cook county 
Illinois, only ten miles from Chicago, and shot numbers of them (Cooke, 
Bird Migration in the Mississippi Valley, 1888, p. 97). There are also 
records for Ohio and Ontario, but the species is nowhere common. 
It breeds in the far north, the Saskatchewan Plains and the Barren 
Grounds being favorite resorts. The eggs are buffy white, boldly spotted 
with dark bronze and purplish, and average 1.53 by 1.04 inches. 
There is a record by Mcllwraith (Birds of Ont., 1894, 156) of the nesting 
of this species at Dunville, Ontario, June 10, 1879, but it has transpired 
recently that this was a mistake and that the nest and eggs recorded really 
belonged to Wilson’s Phalarope (Macoun, Cat. Canadian Birds, Part ITI, 
1904, 732). 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
"No trace of webs between the front toes; bill barely as long as the head, or even shorter. 
“Upper parts dull grayish buff or brownish, varied with blackish; lower parts buff, streaked 
or speckled on chest with dusky; axillars white; under primary coverts and inner webs 
of quills [primaries] beautifully mottled or speckled with dusky on a whitish ground. 
Adult: Feathers of back, etc., blackish centrally, and without whitish borders. Young: 
Feathers of back, etc. distinctly bordered with whitish, the black and brown less sharply 
contrasted; mottling on inner webs of quills, and under primary coverts, much more 
minute and delicate than in adult. Length 7 to 8.90 inches; wing 5.10 to 5.50; culmen 
.75 to .80; tarsus 1.15 to 1.30” (Ridgway). 
