198 BIRDS OF LA PLATA 
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near the water. They are oblong and bluntly pointed 
at the smaller end, and have a white ground colour, 
but so densely marked and blotched with black that 
in some cases they appear to be almost wholly of 
that colour, or like black eggs flecked with white. 
PECTORAL SANDPIPER 
Tringa maculata 
Above brown, varied with black ; superciliaries whitish ; rump and 
middle upper tail-coverts white; beneath white; meck and breast 
greyish streaked with blackish; length 8.5, wing 5.1 inches. Female 
similar. 
THE Pectoral Sandpiper is a well-known North- 
American species that visits the south during migra- 
tion. It breeds abundantly in Alaska, and descends 
in winter through Central and South America to 
Chili and Patagonia. Durnford found it abundant 
about the salt-lagoons of Chupat. Near the end of 
August it begins to arrive in La Plata, usually in 
very small flocks or singly ; and among these first 
comers there are some young birds so immature, 
with threads of yellow down still adhering to the 
feathers of the head and altogether weak in appear- 
ance, that one can scarcely credit the fact that so soon 
after being hatched they have actually performed 
the stupendous journey from the northern extremity 
of the North American continent to the Buenos- 
Ayrean pampas. 
This species differs from other Sandpipers in 
