112 



Young of the year (Laredo) . Resembles the adult, but has the back and rump darker, these parts being 

 blackish brown with narrow brownish white margins to the feathers, the scapulars and elongated inner 

 secondaries having also dull white margins, the latter having also a metallic purplish tinge ; and the 

 underparts are paler and whiter. 



Obs. I cannot observe any difference in plumage according to the season of the year, except that the 

 specimens from Peru, obtained in the late autumn, have the plumage worn and the underparts paler. 



This beautiful Sandpiper, which inhabits the northern portions of the Nearctic Region during 

 the breeding-season, migrating in winter far down into South America, is only met with as a 

 rare straggler in the Palsearctic Region, most of the recorded occurrences having taken place in 

 Great Britain. It is somewhat singular that, though described by Vieillot in 1819, it was 

 unnoticed by the North-American ornithologists until Yarrell recorded it as a British bird, and 

 called Audubon's attention to it. Yarrell (Brit. B. iii. p. 61) records the following instances of its 

 occurrence in Great Britain, viz. : — one shot in September 1846, in the parish of Melbourne, Cam- 

 bridgeshire ; one killed at Sherringham, Norfolk, on the 29th July, 1832 ; one, a male, obtained 

 in May 1829, at Formby-on-the-Alt, about thirteen miles north of Liverpool; one, Yarmouth, 

 autumn of 1839 or 1840 ; one, Yarmouth, 22nd September, 1841 ; and another at the same 

 place in September 1843 ; one, Marazion, Cornwall, 3rd September, 1846 (Rodd, Zool. 1846, 

 p. 1500); and one recorded by Mr. F. M'Coy as having been shot by Mr. J. Hill near the 

 Pigeon-house, Dublin. Besides these, the following instances are also on record, viz. : — one, 

 Sussex coast, 1843 (Bond, Zool. 1843, p. 148); one on the Exe, August 1851 (D'Urban, Guide 

 to Exeter, p. 122); one, Lundy Island, 1858, in the possession of Dr. Woodforde, of Taunton 

 (Harting, Handb. Brit. B. p. 138); one, Land's End, 8th September, 1860 (Rodd, Zool. 1860, 

 p. 7236); two, People's Park, Belfast, October 1864 (Saunders, Zool. 1866, p. 389); one, co. 

 Dublin (Blake-Knox, Zool. 1866, p. 303); and one, Scilly, September 1870 (Rodd, Zool. 1870, 

 p. 2346). Mr. Harting, who enumerates (I. c.) all the above occurrences, adds that he was 

 informed by Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., that a specimen recorded in the ' Zoologist,' 1857, p. 5791, 

 as referable to the present species, was in all probability a young Ruff. It appears also to have 

 occurred in Scotland; for Mr. Robert Gray writes (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 319) as follows: — "A 

 specimen of this rare British bird is mentioned in a catalogue of species found in Caithness, by 

 the late Mr. Sinclair, of Wick, and published in the statistical account of that parish in 1835. 

 This specimen is still preserved in the collection which belonged to Mr. Sinclair, and has of late 

 years been referred to by Mr. Shearer in a paper which was published in the ' Proceedings ' of 

 the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh." 



On the continent of Europe it is extremely rare. Messrs. Degland and Gerbe state (Orn. 

 Eur. ii. p. 210) that a young male bird of the year was obtained near Abbeville, and is in the 

 collection of M. J. de Lamotte ; and, according to Professor Blasius, there is a specimen in the 

 collection of Mr. Gatke, obtained on Heligoland. 



In America it is generally distributed throughout the United States during the seasons of 

 passage, but breeds only in the high north. Mr. Dall (Trans. Chic. Ac. Sc. 1869, p. 293) says 

 that " two specimens were obtained on the Yukon, below Nulato, where it is rare ; one was 

 obtained at Sitka by Bischoff. It breeds abundantly in the Anderson-river region." Nuttall 



