214 PRtECOCIAL grallatoees — limicol^. 



1853. On tlip 2.Stli of July, 1875, Dr. Coppinger came across a party of six birds, 

 several miles iulancl from Fort Foulke. They were feeding near a rill, and were very 

 wild; but lie secured a male in the full breeding-plumage. August 25, 1875, Mr. 

 Feilden observed several of tliese birds near the water's edge in Discovery Bay (lat. 

 81° 44' jS".). The rills and iiuirshes were frozen, and the birds were feediug along the 

 shore on small crustaceans ; in pursuit of their prey they ran breast high into the 

 water. They had lost their breediiig-j)lumage. On June 5, 1876, while camped near 

 Knot Harbor, Griniudl Land (lat. 82° 33' ^.), he noted the first arrival of this species. 

 A flock of fourteen or more were circling over a hillside, alighting on bare patches, 

 and feeding eagerly on the buds of the saxifraga. Subsequently he met with it in 

 considerable mimbers, but always wild and dithcult of approach. Their cry was wild, 

 and like that of the Curlew. Immediately after their arrival they began to mate, at 

 this season soaring high in the air like the Common Snipe. AVlien descending from a 

 height they beat their wings behind the back with a rapid motion, producing a loud 

 whirring noise. On the 30th of July, 1876, three of the seamen, walking by the bor- 

 der of a small lake, came iipon an old bird accompanied by three nestlings. The old 

 bi]"d proved to be a male. Its stomach and those of the young ones were filled with 

 insects. Dr. Coppinger informed Mr. Feilden that the bird was not uncommon at 

 Thank-God Harbor, and in the first Aveek in August the latter saw family parties at 

 Shift-Eudder Bay (lat. 81° 52' jST.) in the gray autumn plumage. It also bred in the 

 vicinity of Discovery Bay ; biit no eggs were found there, although the young were 

 obtained in all stages of plumage. 



On the American coast this bird occurs, in its migrations, in most of the Atlantic 

 States, and in the winter in the West Indies, and prol)ably on the Gulf coast of Mex- 

 ico. It breeds in the high Arctic Eegions, in the northeastern portions. Sir Edward 

 Parry, in his first voyage, found it breeding in great al)undance on the North Georgian 

 Islands ; and on his second voyage a single specimen — a young male of the season — 

 was shot on the 17th of August in the Duke of York's Bay. Sir John Richardson 

 also mentions that this species was observed breeding on Melville Peninsula by Cap- 

 tain Lyons, who stated that this bird lays four eggs on a tuft of withered grass, 

 without being at the pains of forming any nest. In the " Fauna Boreali-Americana " 

 the same w^riter adds that this bird breeds in Hudson's Bay, and down to the fifty- 

 fifth parallel. He describes the eggs as having a light yellowish ground, marked at 

 the larger end with spots of gray and reddish, which form, in a greater or less 

 degree, a zone ; but the smaller end is nearly unspotted. 



Specimens of this Wader were procured at Nulato, in May, by Mr. Pease, at Sitka 

 by Mr. Bischoff, and at St. Michael's by Mr. Bannister, and also at Unalaklik by Mr. 

 Potter. 



Mr. Boardman informs us that it occurs in small flocks in the neighborhood of 

 Calais, Me., but is never very abundant there, Ijeing seen only in the spring and 

 fall migrations, and none remaining to breed. It is known there as the Robin Snipe. 

 In Massachusetts this bird is regarded by some hunters as having become less abun- 

 dant than it Avas formerly known to be. Mr. William Brewster has met with it in 

 the spring in small flocks of five or six ; this was late in May, and it was then rather 

 abundant. It comes regularly in the fall about the middle of August, and thence to 

 the 1st of September. 



Mr. Frank H. Tileston, however, informs me that these birds arrive in Barnstable 

 County, Mass., in their migrations nortliAvard, with great punctuality, about the 20th 

 of May. They still come in large flocks every year, but rarely stay more than a day 

 or two, passing immediately northward. At Eastham, May 20, 1875, he noted their 



