THE PECTORAL SANDPIPERS. 249 



tunity 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, tbd-ii, too-u, 

 too-ii, too-ti, too-U) too-ii, too-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 suffusion 

 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 this state, as I found by 

 dissection. The bird may be frequently seen running along 

 the ground close to the female, its enormous sac inflated and 

 its head drawn back and the bill pointing directly forward, or, 

 filled with spring-time vigour, the bird flits with slow but with 

 energetic wing-strokes close along the ground, its head raised 

 high over its shoulders and the tail hanging ahr.o.t 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 twenty or thirty yards in the air and, in- 

 flating its throat, glides down to the ground with its sac hang- 

 ing below. Again he crosses back and forth in front of the 

 female, puffing his breast out and bowing from side to side, 

 running here and there, as if intoxicated with passion. When- 

 ever he pursues his love-making, his rather low but pervading 

 note swells and dies in musical cadences, which form a strik- 

 ing part of the great bird chorus heard at this season in the 

 north." 



Nest Placed in some high and dry situation and built in 

 the grass. 



Eggs. Four in number, of the usual pear-shaped form. 

 The ground-colour is pale stone-grey, the spotting being very 



