PECTORAL SANDPIPER 177 



Fall. — Regarding their departure from their breeding grounds, 

 Murdoch (1885) says: 



After the breeding season, they keep very quiet and retired, like the rest 

 of the waders, and the adults appear to slip quietly away without collecting 

 into flocks, as soon as the young are able to take care of themselves. As soon 

 as the young have assumed the complete fall plumage, that is about the 10th 

 of August, they gather in large flocks with the other young waders, especially 

 about the small ponds on the high land below Cape Smythe, and stay for 

 several days before they take their departure for the South. Stray birds 

 remain as late as the first week of September. 



On the New England coast the pectoral is both an early and a 

 late migrant ; a few adults sometimes appear in July and more come 

 in August; but the main flight, mostly young birds, comes in Sep- 

 tember and October ; they are often abundant in the latter month and 

 I have seen them as late as October 31. When with us it is seldom 

 seen on the sandy flats or beaches, but frequents the wet, fresh 

 and salt meadows, preferably where the grass has been cut and 

 which after a rain are covered with shallow' pools of water. Here 

 and along the margins of marshy creeks are its favorite feeding 

 grounds. It does not decoy well and is no longer considered a game 

 bird, but it has been popular with sportsmen for its gamy qualities 

 and for the excellence of its flesh. 



There is a marked southeastward trend in the fall migration of 

 this species; from its breeding grounds in northern Alaska and 

 northeastern Siberia its main flight seems to be towards the Atlantic 

 coast of the United States ; it is not abundant and rather irregular on 

 the Pacific coast south of Alaska ; it is common at times in the interior 

 of Canada and usually abundant in New England. It occasionally 

 occurs in enormous numbers in Bermuda and seems to be always 

 rare in Florida; these facts would seem to indicate an ocean route 

 to South America. 



Winter. — The winter home of the pectoral sandpiper is in south- 

 ern South America. Arthur H. Holland (1891) says that in the 

 Argentine Republic, it is "usually found in marshy land with long 

 water weeds abounding, frequenting the same spot for weeks to- 

 gether." Between September and March 26, Doctor Wetmore (192G) 

 recorded it as " fairly common " at various places in Paraguay, Ar- 

 gentina, and Uruguay. It evidently spends over half the year in 

 its winter home and makes very rapid flights (o and from its Arctic 

 breeding grounds, where it makes a short visit of about two months. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Rang e. — Northeastern Siberia, and North and South America; 

 accidental in the Hawaiian Islands and the British Isles. 



