PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 193 



brownish-black, bordered with light brownish-red ; a faint 

 whitish line, streaked with dusky, over the eye; the loral band 

 brownish-black. On the upper parts of the body and wings 

 the feathers are brownish-black, broadly edged with brownish- 

 red ; those on the hind part of the back but slightly edged ; 

 the middle tail-coverts black, the lateral whitish ; the larger 

 Aving-coverts paler ; the quills and tail-feathers as in winter. 

 The sides of the head and neck, with the fore part of the 

 latter, a portion of the breast, and the sides brownisb-grey, 

 streaked with dusky ; the other parts white, except some of 

 the lower wing-coverts. 



Habits. — Very little seems to be known of the habits of 

 this species. Mr. Audubon says it is not uncommon along 

 the eastern coasts of the United States in autumn and 

 winter, and Mr. Nuttall describes it as plentiful about 

 Boston. The former of these authors adds : — " I have ob- 

 served that the flight of the Pectoral Sandpiper resembles 

 that of the Knot, and is firm, rapid, and well-sustained. It 

 skims rather low over the surface of the water or the land, 

 and at times shoots high up into the air, propelling itself 

 with double rapidity and in perfect silence. It runs with 

 great agility, and probes the sand or wet earth, immersing 

 its bill up to the base. I never saw the species in any part 

 of the interior. Its places of resort during the breeding 

 season, and the changes of plumage which it undergoes, are 

 unknown." It does not appear to have been met with on 

 the shores of Europe ; but an individual is recorded to have 

 been killed " on the 17th of October, 1830, on the borders 

 of Breydon Broad, an extensive sheet of water near Yar- 

 mouth, rather celebrated for the numerous rare birds which 

 have at different times been observed and shot on its banks 

 and waters. The person who killed it remarked that it was 

 solitary, and its note was new to him, which induced him to 

 shoot it. It proved a female on dissection." A second in- 

 dividual is stated to have occurred at the Scilly Islands, and 

 a third on the coast of Durham. 



