PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 



131 



of some other species. Like the Snipe, they seem fond of 

 damp meadows and marshes, and soHtary individuals are often 

 surprised by the sportsman in the manner of that bird. 



The Pectoral Sandpiper breeds in the Arctic and subarctic re- 

 gions of North America, — from Greenland to Alaska, —and in 

 winter retires to the West Indies and southward. Large flocks of 

 these birds migrate north and south across the prairies and through 

 the valley of the great rivers of the West, but along the Atlantic sea- 

 board only a scattered few are seen in the spring, though during 

 the early autumn they appear in numbers. While on our coasts 

 they mingle sociably with other small Sandpipers, but some of their 

 manners and habits suggest the Snipe rather than the Sandpiper. 

 They frequent the salt-marshes and seaside meadows more than the 

 sandy beaches, and the erratic flight of a flock when suddenly 

 flushed is peculiarly Snipe-like. 



Nothing definite was known of the breeding-habits of these 

 birds until recently, when our naturalists discovered them nesting 

 in Alaska. Murdock found numbers at Point Barrow ; then Nel- 

 son made a study of them at St, Michael's in 1879; and in 1883 the 

 members of Lieutenant Ray's party at Point Barrow were fortunate 

 enough to secure several nests with eggs. 



In the mating season, which occurs after they have reached the 

 vicinity of their nesting ground, the males become intensely excited 

 in their efforts to gain the attention of the females and to keep near 

 to one chosen for a mate. They run along the sand with wings exten- 

 ded, or take short flights close to the ground, passing to and fro 

 in front of the amorita, or whirling in graceful curves in the air 

 above her, all the while uttering a deep and hollow booming, which 

 resembles hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, or too-zi, too-u, too-u, rapidly repeated 

 in liquid musical tones. " Whenever he pursues his love-making," 

 says Mr. Nelson, " his rather low but pervading note swells and 

 dies in musical cadences, which form a striking part of the great 

 bird chorus heard at this season in the North." During these per- 

 formances the throat and breast are filled with air and puffed out 

 to twice their natural extent, — whence the name Pectoral. When 

 not thus inflated, the air-sac hangs an inch or more below the gen- 

 eral contour of the neck. While with us these birds do not display 

 this inflated breast, and the only note we hear from them is a low 

 soft tweet. 



