112 WADING BIRDS. 



damp meadows and marshes, and solitary individuals are 

 often surprised by the sportsman in the manner of that bird. 



The Pectoral Sandpiper is commonly about 10 inches in length, 

 though individuals sometimes occur a full inch shorter. Bill from the 

 rictus, or opening of the mouth, a little more than an inch, of a pur- 

 plish flesh-color, inclining to yellow below, and nearly black at the 

 tip. Legs and feet olive. Ujjper jjluviage (in summer.) above black, 

 deepest on the head, back, and scapulars, fading into dusky on the 

 neck, and wing coverts, with all the feathers bordered with rufous, 

 deepest on the head and shoulder of the wings, in the pale parts of 

 the edgings becoming gradually and softly diluted into, or mixed with, 

 white. Outer edges of the scapulars and contiguous plumage, white : 

 larger wing coverts edged with white only. Quills all spotless and 

 dusky, the shaft of the first, white. Rump black, white at the sides. 

 Under phimage, throat and breast, to the shoulders of the wings 

 blackish-ash, extending in lines along the shafts of the feathers, 

 which are there broadly tipt with brownish-white ; the rest of the 

 plumage and chin, nearly white. — In young birds, the black feath- 

 ers of the rump are faintly edged with rufous : the plumage of the 

 breast is paler, more broadly and delicately edged with rufous white, 

 a color also pervading the chin, which is likewise without spots, 

 (but in the adult more white, and always more or less mot- 

 tled.) Long axillary feathers white. In some birds the rufous edg- 

 ings of the back and scapulars are diluted with yellowish.-^ In the 

 old birds of summer before moulting, the wing coverts and tertials 

 are worn to sharp points, and divested of their rufous margins, in 

 consequence of their constant habit, (in common with other species) 

 of threading their way through the sedge grass of the marshes, in 

 quest of insects. — Whether this species becomes white on the breast 

 in winter, or not, I cannot say, from experience, but doubt the fact. 



