AMERICAN PECTORAL SANDPIPER 985 
Food. — The food consists of worms, small shell-fish, 
insects, and seaweeds. In the gizzard of the immature 
female bird, mentioned above as taken in Belmullet, co. 
Mayo, in October, 1900, I found the legs and wing-cases 
of small lustrous-green beetles, an entire light brown- 
coloured larva half an inch in length, pebbles, some 
measuring 2 mm. in size, and some fine sand. 
Voice. — The note, heard in the pairing-season, 1s a 
muffled hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo (Saunders). 
Nest.—The nest is built in dry situations amidst grasses 
The eggs, four in number, are drab or greenish, blotched 
with umber-brown. In the breeding-season this species 
has the power of inflating the lower part of its throat, so 
that its breast appears unduly distended; hence the name 
‘ Pectoral’ Sandpiper. 
Geographical distribution.—This Sandpiper is distributed 
in the breeding-season over the greater part of Northern 
and Sub-arctic Canada. On migration southward in 
autumn, it is widely distributed over “the Temperate regions 
of the American Continent, and the great Island- _Groups, 
its winter-range extending to lat. 40° 8. in South America. 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial—Head, neck, and back, 
dark brown with rufous margins; wings, thinly barred with 
white; upper and under tail-coverts, dusky-brown ; central 
tail-feathers, very dark brown, lateral tail-feathers, hghter 
brown; cheeks and throat, dull white striped with brown ; 
breast, buff-coloured, streaked with brown; abdomen, 
white. 
Adult female nuptial.—Similar to the maie plumage. 
Adult winter, male and female.—Resembles the nuptial 
plumage but there is less rufous on the back and wings, and 
the general shade is browner. 
Immature, male and female.—The stripes on the breast 
are somewhat less marked than in the adult, and there is 
more rufous on the back and wings ; scapulars and inner 
secondaries, margined with white. 
Beak. Greenish-black. 
FEET. Dull yellowish-brown. 
IrtDEs. Dark-brown. 
