BUFF-BREASTED SANDPDPER.
Tringa ruftscens, SELBY. JEXYNS.
Tringa— ? Ruffscens—Inclining to red.
M. YIELI.OT -was t h e first to establish the specific identity of this
species. It is common in North and South America, which is its
t r u e country, occurring in Canada, and even farther up, and thence
i n Louisiana, and near New York and Boston, and in Brazil and
other parts. It has, in E u r o p e , been found in France.
I n England, one, the first ' P i o n e e r ' on record of others to this,
to them. New E n g l a n d , was shot early in the month of September,
in the year 1826, in the parish of Melbourne, in Cambridgeshire;
the next was obtained at Sherringham, on the coast, of Norfolk, a
few years subsequently; a third at Formby, on the bank of the
Biver Alt, in Lancashire, and a fourth at Yarmouth, in Norfolk, in
t h e autumn of 18o9 or 1840: others have at d i f f e r e n t times been procured
along the coast in the same county—one, September 22nd.,
1841, and another on Breydon, September 20th., 1843. One also in
Cornwall, on the sea-coast between Penzance and Marazion, September
3 r d . , 1810; another near Chun Castle. One, of which Stephen Stone,
E s q . , of Brighthampton, has informed me, was met with on. some
low land t h r o u g h which the Isis llows, near Hampton, in Oxfordshire.
1 n Ireland one was obtained in Dublin Bay. In Scotland it has
o c c u r r e d in Caithncsshirc.
The localities frequented by this species are the banks of rivers
or the sea-shore. It does not appear to be shy of consorting with
b i r d s of otiier kinds.
It feeds on aquatic and other insects, grasshoppers, and small
worms.
Male; weight, two ounces and a half; length, about eight inches;
b i l l , slender and very slightly curved, and dull greenish olive black
in colour, dusky towards the point. Iris, hazel; head on the sides,