322 



RED-BACKED SANDPIPER. 



winter quarters. During their stay, they seldom collect in 

 separate flocks by themselves, but mix with various other 

 species of strand birds, among whom they are rendered con- 

 spicuous by the red colour of the upper part of their plumage. 

 They frequent the muddy flats and shores of the salt marshes 

 at low water, feeding on small worms and other insects, which 

 generally abound in such places. In the month of May they 

 are extremely fat. 



This bird is said to inhabit Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, 

 the Alps of Siberia, and, in its migrations, the coasts of the 

 Caspian Sea.* It has not, till now, been recognised by natu- 

 ralists as inhabiting this part of North America. Wherever 

 its breeding place may be, it probably begins to lay at a late 

 period of the season, as, in numbers of females which I examined 

 on the 1st of June, the eggs were no larger than grains of 

 mustard seed. 



shaft white ; hack (heneath the interscapulars), rump, and tail-coverts, 

 black, immaculate ; tail-feathers, dusky, margined with white at tip, 

 two intermediate ones longest, acute, attaining the tip of the wings, 

 black, edged with ferruginous ; breast, venter, vent, and inferior tail- 

 coverts, white, plumage blackish at base ; sides, white, the plumage 

 towards the tail slightly lineate with dusky ; feet, greenish yellow ; 

 toes, divided to the base ; length, nearly nine inches ; bill, 11-8. 



T. Douglasii, Swainson. Described in the " Northern Zoology," from 

 a specimen killed on the Saskatchewan, and is not uncommon in the 

 Fur Countries up to the 60th parallel. The authors express a kind of 

 doubt regarding this species, having been unable to compare it with a 

 specimen of Bonaparte's T. himantopus ; but mention the tail as even 

 with the central feathers alone, longest, and not barred with ferrugi- 

 nous ; with chestnut coloured ear-feathers, and somewhat smaller in size. 



To these nearly undescribed species, the Prince of Musignano men- 

 tions in his catalogue, T. Temminckii, Leisler ; T. minuta, Leisler ; 

 Numenius pygmceus, Latham ; the Tringa platyrhyncha, Temminck, and 

 pigmy curlew of our shores ; and the T. maritima, Brunnich, our 

 purple sandpiper. The latter has been met with by most of the late 

 arctic expeditions, and breeds abundantly on Melville Island and the 

 shores of Hudson's Bay, and T. subarquata, Becasseau corcoli, Temm. ; 

 and we may add, the T. rufescens of Vieillot, lately taken in this 

 country. — Ed. 



* Pennant. 



