l60 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



Plover and Buff-breasted Sandpiper, or ir\ a marsh like the 

 Phalaropes. All the complete sets contained four eggs. (Mur- 

 doch.) 



MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 



Two specimens ; one taken at Ottawa, Ont., in October, 1884, by 

 Mr. Ernest White, the other shot by Mr. W. Spreadborough on 

 Milk River, Alberta, July i6th, 1895. 



240. White-ruraped Sandpiper. 



Tringa fuscicollis Vieill. 18 19. 



Believed by Holbcell to breed near Julianshaab, Greenland, 

 where both old and young birds have been seen. {Arct. Man ) 

 A few skins taken in Greenland since 1840. Perhaps a few breed. 

 {y\/in.ge.) A common migrant along the whole Atlantic coast and 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence as well as the river up to Montreal, becom- 

 ing scarcer in Ontario and increasing again in Manitoba where it 

 is common as a migrant. A few seen as far west as Crane Lake, 

 Assa. A few must breed around Indian Head, Assa., as they 

 were observed there from May 9th to July ist, 1892, when 

 Spreadborough left. Sir John Richardson says this species is not 

 infrequent on the shores of the small lakes that skirt the 

 Saskatchewan plains. Murdoch records the shooting of two birds 

 of this species at Point Barrow which is the only Alaskan record. 

 Payne says they occur in large flocks in late summer at Cape 

 Prince of Wales, Hudson Strait, but do not breed. Both 

 Spreadborough and Turner found them in large numbers in 

 Ungava Bay, Labrador, in the autumn, and Macfarlane found a 

 few breeding on the shores of Franklin Bay, Arctic Sea. Their 

 chief breeding-ground would seem to be north of Hudson Bay 

 and northwesterly along the shores of the Arctic Sea to the 

 mouth of the Mackenzie River. 



Breeding Notes. — Several nests of this Sandpiper were taken 

 on or near the Arctic coast of Franklin Bay. One taken July 3rd 

 contained four eggs with very large embryos. Another discover- 

 ed on the following day held but three eggs. A third found in 

 the Barren Grounds on the 2gth June was, like the rest, a shallow 

 depression in the ground, lined with a few decayed leaves, con- 

 taining four eggs, also having very large embryos. A fourth, on 

 the banks of a small river, held four eggs. {Macfarlane.) 



