172 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A set in my collection, taken by F. S. Hersey, near St. Michael, 

 Alaska, was in a slight hollow on the open tundra with no con- 

 cealment. And a set in the Herbert Massey collection, taken near 

 Point Barrow by E. A. Mcllhenny, came from " a slight hollow lined 

 with dry grass, in the dry, gray moss of the tundra." 



Herbert W. Brandt in his manuscript notes says : 



The pectoral sandpiper usually chooses for its horuesite the upland rolling 

 tuudra, but an occasional isolated pair was found on the dry grass lands of the 

 tide flats. This species builds the most substantial of any of the shore-birds 

 nests that we met with at Hooper Bay, for even after it was removed from the 

 grassy cavity in which it was built the nest would often hold firmly together. 

 The birds showed exceptional skill in the concealment of their homes and con- 

 sequently they were very difficult to find for they chose a tract where the 

 curly bunch grass grew abundantly and under its domed protection they con- 

 structed an excavation deep in the moss. Here a substantial nest is fashioned of 

 grasses and tediously lined or rather filled with small crisp leaves of the low 

 perennial plants that there, in a dwarf creeping form, are the only representa- 

 tives of the great inland forests. The dimensions vary between the following 

 extremes : Inside diameter 3 to 3% inches ; depth 1% to 2^ inches ; and 

 outside depth 3% to 5 inches. We never observed other than the female carry- 

 ing on the loving duties of incubation and seldom indeed was the male even 

 in close attendance. The female is very difficult to approach on the nest because 

 she invariably leaves it before the ornithologist draws near and consequently 

 we spent many hours endeavoring to watch the shy bird return to her nest. 



The behavior of parent birds about the nests seems to be variable. 

 W. Sprague Brooks (1915) says: 



On approaching the vicinity of the nest the bird would leave it quietly and 

 walk slowly about feeding and showing no excitement whatever. This hap- 

 pened several times until I decided to watch the bird and see if by any chance 

 she might have a nest. In a short time she walked to a bunch of grass a few 

 feet from me and settled on the nest. Even while I was packing away the eggs 

 she showed no concern. I had precisely the same experience with the other two 

 nests. 



On the other hand, Alfred M. Bailey (1926) writes: 



On July 3 Hendee flushed a female from a set of four slightly incubated 

 eggs. " The nest," he states, " was in a patch of marsh grass, similar to the 

 location usually chosen by the phalaropes, except that the ground was not 

 wet. The female fluttered away to a distance of about 30 feet and went 

 through a remarkable performance in her attempt to decoy me from the nest. 

 She crept about among the hummocks in a very unbirdlike fashion, uttering 

 all the time a mouselike squeaking." 



Eggs. — Mr. Brandt in his manuscript notes has described the eggs 

 so well that I can not do better than to quote him, as follows : 



The eggs of the pectoral sandpiper are of particular interest because they 

 are perhaps the most beautiful of the many handsome shore-bird eggs that are 

 found in the Hooper Bay region. Their rich and contrasting colors, their bold 

 splashed markings, and high luster make them veritable gems of oological 

 perfection. In all nests that came under our observation four eggs constituted 

 the complement, and these generally nestled points together amid the crisp 

 leafy lining of their birthplace, standing most often at an obtuse angle to the 



