588 A PRACTICAL BANBDOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



distinctly streaked below, and area of streaking less extended. 

 Above it averages less distinctly streaked or mottled. Upper tail- 

 coverts never blackish. While size is not an absolutely reliable 

 field -mark, bill is always much more slender. Absence of white on 

 rump will always distinguish it from white -rumped Sandpipers, 

 and it is much larger than either Temminck's or the Little Stint. 

 (Ludlow Griscom.) 



Breeding-habits. — Said to breed in dry tundra. Nest. — Depres- 

 sion in ground, lined dead leaves. Eggs. — Normally 4, pyriform in 

 shape, ranging from grey to ochreous in ground, thickly spotted with 

 rich chocolate -brown of varying shades with ashy shellmarks and 

 occasionally a black streak at large end. Average of 5 eggs, 34.2 X 

 24.3. Max.: 35.5x24.4 and 34.7x24.5. Min. : 32.7x24 mm. 

 Breeding-season. — Second half June and early July. Incubation. — 

 No details. 



Food. — No exact data, but probably feeds on insects, small Crus- 

 tacea, etc. 



Distribution. — Great Britain. — Five. Young female Rye Harbour 

 (Sussex) Oct. 11, 1900 (ut supra). One Hunstanton (Norfolk) Sept. 

 16, 1903 (J. H. Gurney, Zool, 1909, p. 124). Adult female St. Kilda 

 (0. Hebrides) Sept. 28, 1911 (W. E. Clarke, Scot. Nat., 1912, p. 9). 

 Rye Harbour female Sept. 16, 1912, male Sept. 23, 1914 (H. W. 

 Ford-Lindsay, Brit. B., vi, p. 193, vm, p. 174). 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Breeds along arctic coast of North 

 America and migrates south to Chile, Argentina, and Patagonia, 

 once in south-west Africa and once near coast of Tchuktchi Penin- 

 sula. 



CALIDRIS FUSCICOLLIS 



398. Calidris fuscicollis (Vieill.) — BONAPARTE'S SANDPIPER. 



Tringa fuscicollis Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., nouv. ed., xxxiv, 



p. 461 (1819 — Paraguay. Ex Azara). 



Tringa fuscicollis Vieillot, Yarrell, m, p. 373 ; Saunders, p. 581. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Crown, nape, 

 mantle and scapulars ash-brown, feathers with lighter edges and 

 shaded darker centrally ; back and rump sepia, feathers edged 

 greyish -white, sides of back and rump white ; upper tail-coverts 

 white irregularly marked brown, two central coverts sepia edged 

 greyish-white ; incomplete eye -stripe white streaked dusky ; ear- 

 coverts, cheeks and sides of neck white streaked dusky ; chin and 

 throat white ; breast pale ash-brown, feathers edged white and 

 narrowly streaked sepia ; flanks white shaded ash-brown ; remain- 

 ing under -parts white ; tail-feathers pale ash-brown, central pair 

 sepia, all faintly edged white ; primaries sepia, paler on inner webs, 

 shaft of 2nd white, of others mostly white ; secondaries sepia, paler 

 on inner webs and tipped white, innermost sepia shading to ash- 

 brown towards edges ; primary-coverts sepia narrowly tipped 



