PECTOEAL SAN DPI PEE 369 



j>ale tawnv; outeiniost upper tail coverts white, streaked with brown; inner 

 tail feathers dull dark brown, lateral ones drab; outer surface of closed wing 

 dull dark brown, most of the feathers dark n?ar shaft and lighter at margins, 

 even bordered with whitish; primaries brownish black, shaft of outermost one 

 white; margin and under coverts of wing rnottled white and brown; hindmost 

 under coverts and under surface of flight feathers dusky; axillars white; 

 feathers of throat and breast thickly marked with brownish black shaft streaks 

 on whitish or bufify ground; rest of under surface abruptly white; sides with 

 a buffy tinge and dark shafts; flanks white, with narrow shaft stripes; feet 

 greenish. Total length 8.00-9.62 inches (20.3-242 mm.) (two specimens, from 

 Alaska and Florida). Males: folded wing 5.37-5.61 (136.5-142.5); bill along 

 culmen 1.15-1.20 (29.1-30.5); tarsus 1.09-1.14 (27.8-29.0) (five specimens from 

 California, Alaska and British Columbia). Females: folded wing 4.79-5.05 

 (121.9-128.0); bill along culmen 0.98-1.14 (25.0-29.0); tarsus 1.0.3-1.11 (26.1- 

 28.1) (nine specimens from California, Alaska and British Columbia). Adults, 

 both sexes, in fall aiid uinfer: "Similar to summer plumage, but the rusty tint 

 above almost or wholly absent, and the black markings less sharply defined" 

 (Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, 1884, I, p. 233). Juvenile plnmage: Similar to 

 that of adults in summer but longer scapulars and other feathers of back 

 margined extensively wnth bright tawny and white; general buffy tone on 

 breast more intense. Natal plumage: Forehead and sides of head, buffy yellow; 

 chin and throat, w^hite; stripes up middle of forehead, from bill to eye, from 

 bill to below eye, and from above eye to ear region, black; bill dusky, slightly 

 paler at base; top of head, back and wings, of mixed pattern, the down 

 feathers reddish brown at bases and black near ends and some with huffy 

 white tips; breast buff; belly chiefly white; legs and feet (dried) pale straw 

 yellow; nails blackish. 



Marks for field identification — Medium small size (slightly smaller than 

 a Killdeer), short bill about as long as head, white chin, buffy foreneck and 

 breast finely streaked with dark brownish (this area constituting a broad, rather 

 abruptly outlined, pectoral band), and blackish rump and upper tail coverts. 

 More common on meadowland and less so on open flats than other sandpipers. 



Voice — A single, rather rasping tireet or Tcreelc ; in the breeding season a 

 deep, hollow, resonant, yet musical, too'-u, too'-u, too'-u, too'-ii (Nelson, 1887, 

 p. 108). 



Nest — Tn grass in dry situations though often in the vicinity of water; a 

 depression lined with a little grass. 



Eggs — Usually 4, pointedly pear-shaped, measuring in inches, 1.42 to 1.58 

 by 1.02 to 1.11 (in millimeters, 36.1 to 40.2 by 25.9 to 28.2) ; ground-color drab, 

 with a greenish tinge in some specimens, spotted and blotched with umber 

 brown, variously distributed; deeper markings pale purplish gray (Murdoch, 

 1885, pp. Ill, 112). 



General distribution — North and South America. Breeds commonly on 

 the Arctic coast of Alaska from the mouth of the Yukon to Point Barrow, 

 rarely in Mackenzie, and probably on the Arctic coast northwest of Hudson 

 Bay. In migration occurs abundantly south to southern Alaska, and throughout 

 the United States east of the Rocky Mountains; in limited numbers on the 

 Pacific coast from British Columbia southward. Winters in central South 

 America in Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, up to 12,000 feet altitude (Cooke, 1910, 

 p. 35; et al.). 



Distribution in California — Rather rare migrant coastwise; has been 

 recorded from: San Francisco Bay (Cooper, 1868, p. 8); Mill Valley Junction, 



