THE PECTORAL SANDPIPER. I[ 9 



" Broad-bills" frequent grassy and sedgy parts of the mountain swamps, never 

 bare muddy places, but where the ground is neither very wet, nor the vegetation 

 more than three or four inches high, and where the conditions are such that an 

 ordinary man's foot sinks a couple of inches into the soil at each step. Broad- 

 bills lie very close, usually, rise with a low, shrill whistle, and, early in June, are 

 almost invariably in pairs ; in wet and windy weather, however, like most other 

 birds, they become very wild, and I have seen them at such times go through 

 exactly the same performances as a drumming Snipe, the alternate descending 

 motion, with quivering wings, being accompanied by a high tremulous whistle. 

 They are tiresome to shoot, as they have a perplexing way of rising at one's feet 

 in a great hurry, and flying off very swiftly as if they meant to go for miles, and 

 then, just as they are at the proper distance to shoot, dropping down suddenly 

 like a stone, causing your shot to fly harmlessly over their heads. I cannot say 

 much as to their food; I have never found anything but indistinguishable "mush" 

 in the digestive canal ; but the food almost certainly consists of larvae, small 

 beetles, and flies. On migration Broad-bills appear to frequent fresh-water lakes, 

 pond, and marshes, or salt-water ponds near the sea (as the Phalaropes do), in 

 preference to the edge of the waves, or the bare " clays." They usually travel in 

 very small parties. 



Family SCOL OP A CSDsE. 



PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 



Tritiga maculata, VlEILL. 



NO purely American bird, probably, wanders more frequently to our coasts 

 than this. A score, or more, of undoubted occurrences are known in 

 England, in Scotland two or three, in Ireland one. It breeds in the arctic regions 

 of the American Continent, including Greenland, whence, probably, come most of 

 the stragglers to Europe. It passes in autumn and spring along the North 

 American coasts and through the West Indies, wintering in South America down 



