130 WADING BIRDS. 



uous white tail-coverts. Their note, also, is peculiar, — a low soft 

 weet. 



In habits they differ little from other Sandpipers, — a little more 

 confiding and heedless perhaps, and more frequently found on the 

 mud-flats and among the sea-weed than on the sand. 



PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 



jack snipe. grass snipe. krieker. 



Tringa maculata. 



Char. Upper parts dusky brown, the feathers margined with buff and 

 rufous ; rump and tail-coverts dusky ; cheeks and throat dull white 

 streaked with brown ; breast buffy gray streaked with dusky ; chin and 

 belly white. In winter the plumage is plain gray and white, sometimes 

 tinged with pale rufous and buff. Length about 8)4^ inches. 



Nest. Amid a tuft of grass on a dry mound or hill side. 



Egg%. 4 ; pale buff, greenish drab, or olive brown, thickly blotched 

 with rich red brown ; 1.50 X 1.05. 



This conspicuous species of Sandpiper, first detected by 

 Mr. Say, is by no means uncommon in various parts of the 

 United States, migrating north, and perhaps west, to breed, 

 as it is common in the remote plains of the Mississippi. These 

 birds have been killed in abundance on the shores of Cohasset 

 and in other parts of Massachusetts Bay, and brought to the 

 markets of Boston, being very fat and well flavored. They 

 arrive in flocks about the close of August, and continue here, 

 as well as in New Jersey, till the month of September, and 

 perhaps into October. In some instances solitary individuals 

 have been killed in the marshes of Charles River, in Cam- 

 bridge, about the 2 2d of July. These were in company with 

 the flocks of small Sandpipers ; but whether pairs may perhaps 

 breed in the neighboring marshes or not, we have not had the 

 means of ascertaining. 



While here, they feed on small coleoptera, larv-ae, and the 

 common green Ulva laitissima, as well as some species of 

 Fucus, or sea-weed, on which they become very fat. They 

 utter a low, plaintive whistle when started, very similar to that 



