PECTOEAL SANDPIPER. 5 



disintegrating ice in the river, and at intervals by the wild notes of some restless 

 loon, which arose in a hoarse reverberating cry and died away in a strange 

 gurgling sound. As my eyelids began to droop and the scene to become indistinct, 

 suddenly a low, hollow, booming note struck my ear and sent my thoughts back 

 to a spring morning in Northern Illinois, and to the loud vibrating tones of the 

 prairie chickens. Again the sound arose nearer and more distinct, and with an 

 effort I brought myself back to the reality of my position and, resting upon one 

 elbow, listened. A few seconds passed and again arose the note ; a moment later 

 and, gun in hand, I stood outside the tent. The open flat extended away on all 

 sides, with apparently not a living creature near. Once again the note was 

 repeated close by, and a glance revealed its author. Standing in the thin grasses 

 10 or 15 yards from me, with its throat inflated until it was as large as the rest of 

 the bird, was a male A. macidata. The succeeding days afl"orded opportunity to 

 observe the bird as it uttered its singular notes under a variety of situations and 

 at various hours of the day or during the light Arctic night. The note is deep, 

 hollow, and resonant, but at the same time liquid and musical, and may be 

 represented by a repetition of the syllables too-u, too-u, foo-u, too-H, too-u, tod-u, 

 too-u, foo-u. Before the bird utters these notes it fills its oesophagus with air to 

 such an extent that the breast and throat is inflated to twice or more its natural 

 size, and the great air-sac thus formed gives the peculiar resonant quality to the 

 note. 



" The skin of the throat and breast becomes very flabby and loose at this 

 season, and its inner surface is covered with small globular masses of fat. When 

 not inflated, the skin loaded with this extra weight and with a slight serous 

 suff'usion which is present hangs down in a pendulous flap or fold exactly like a 

 dewlap, about an inch and a half wide. The oesophagus is very loose and becomes 

 remarkably soft and distensible, but is easily ruptured in tliis state, as I found by 

 dissection. In the plate accompanying this report, the extent and character of 

 this inflation, unique at least among American waders, is shown. The bird may 

 frequently be seen running along the ground close to the female, its enormous 

 sac inflated, and its head drawn back and the bill pointing du'ectly forward, or, 

 filled with spring-time vigor, the bird flits with slow but energetic wing-strokes 

 close along the ground, its head raised high over the shoulders and the tail 

 hanging almost directly down. As it thus flies it utters a succession of the 

 hollow booming notes, which have a strange ventriloquial quality. At times the 

 male rises 20 or 30 yards in the air and inflating its throat glides down to the 

 ground with its sac hanging below, as is shown in the accompanying plate. 

 Again he crosses back and forth in front of the female, puffing his breast out and 



