108 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



course, each species has peculiarities of its own. They need, however, not detain us 

 here, with the exception of one feature which does not seem to be generally known, 

 viz., that some of the species during the breeding season are capable of producing a 

 real song, which is considerably superior to that of many a " song-bird " proper. Says 

 Mr. Seebohm, for instance, of Actodromas temminckii: "I first made the acquaint- 

 ance of Temminck's stint at Tromsce, on the west coast of Finmark, where it was very 

 common. These charming little birds were in full song in the middle of June. It 

 was a most interesting sight to watch them flying up into the air, wheeling round and 

 round, singing almost as vigorously and nearly as melodiously as a sky-lark. Some- 

 times they were to be seen perched on a rail or a post, or even on the slender branch 

 of a willow, vibrating their little wings like a wood-wren, and trilling with all their 

 might; and often the song was uttered on the ground as they ran along the short 

 grass with wings elevated over the back. The song of this bird is not unlike that of 

 the grasshopper warbler, but is louder and shriller." Of Totanus glareola, the wood- 

 sandpiper of the Old World, the same author says : " The note which the male utters 

 during the pairing season is much more of a song than that of the grasshopper war- 

 bler, which it somewhat resembles; it is a monotomous til-il-il., begun somewhat low 

 and slow, as the bird is descending in the air with fluttering upraised wings, becom- 

 ing louder and more rapid, and reaching its climax as the bird alights on the ground 

 or on a rail, or sometimes on the bare branch of a willow, the points of its trembling 

 wings almost meeting over its head when its feet find support. This song is a by no 

 means unmusical trill, and has an almost metallic ring about it." 



Concerning another species, the pectoral sandpiper (Actodromns maculatus), Mr. 

 E. W. Nelson made some very interesting notes during his explorations in Alaska, to 

 the effect that the male, during the breeding season, can fill its oesophagus with air to 

 such an extent that the breast and throat are inflated to twice or more the natural 

 size, the great air-sac thus formed giving a peculiar resonant quality to the note which 

 lie describes as deep and hollow, but at the same time liquid and musical. The skin 

 of the throat and breast becomes very flabby and loose, so as to hang down " in a pen- 

 dulous flap or fold, exactly like a dewlap, about an inch and a half wide," even when 

 not inflated. " The male may frequently be seen running along the ground close to 

 the female, its enormous sac inflated, and its head drawn back, and the bill pointing 

 directly forwards ; or, filled with spring-time vigor, the bird flits with slow but ener- 

 getic wing-strokes close along the ground, its head raised high over the shoulders, and 

 the tail hanging almost directly down. As it thus flies, it utters a succession of the 

 booming notes adverted to above, which have a strange ventriloquial quality. At times 

 the male rises twenty or thirty yards in the air, and, inflating its throat, glides down 

 to the ground with its sac hanging below ; again he crosses back and forth in front of 

 the female, puffing out his breast, and bowing from side to side, running here and there 

 as if intoxicated with passion. Whenever he pursues his love-making, his rather low 

 but far-reaching note swells and dies in musical cadence, and forms a striking part of 

 the great bird chorus at that season in the north." 



When speaking above of the uniformity in structure and habits of the birds com- 

 posing this sub-family, a mental reservation was made in regard to the ruff (Pavon- 

 cella pugnaV) . The male, during the breeding season, has the face covered with naked 

 yellowish tubercles, and an enormous ruff of erectile feathers appears simultaneously 

 on the neck. The colors of this ruff especially, as well as of the body, are so diver- 

 sified that hardly two individuals can be found precisely alike, though it is said that 



