148 Birds of Oregon and Washington 



strange bird will be seen and heard. " Strange," 

 because it makes so loud, peculiar, and command- 

 ing, a call. It may be heard sometimes three- 

 quarters of a mile, giving its *' pumping " call, 

 " pumper-lunk, pumper-lunk," or its *' stake-driv- 

 ing" call, *' chunk, chunk." The latter often 

 deceives the ear, and sounds like the report made 

 by the head of an axe, when struck upon a stake 

 that is being driven into the mud. 



Mr. Charles Conrad Abbott, however, thinks 

 " no sound in nature is so hopelessly beyond de- 

 scription." Mr. Bradford Torrey has been for- 

 tunate and skillful enough to see these birds in 

 the act of making the noise. He reports that it 

 is done with violent contortions of the head and 

 neck. 



They are birds of the marsh and the shore, 

 where they wade in the mud or in the tide-made 

 shallows. 



Particular Description. — Above, mainly yellow- 

 ish, varied not a little with mottling of reddish-brown and 

 black ; wings, slate-color, tipped with reddish-brown i 

 lower parts, pale buff, striped with brown ; a black streak 

 on the neck. 



Summer resident. 



