164 HISTORY OF THE 



but energetic and frequently musical song, which can be very 

 imperfectly expressed by the syllables "Peet-peet, pee-ter-wee- 

 too, wee-too, pee-ter-wee-too, pee-ter-wee-too, wee-too, wee-too." 

 This is the complete song, but frequently only fragments are 

 sung, as when the bird is in pursuit of the female. 



"June 16th, while crossing a tussock-covered hill top, over a 

 mile from any water, I was surprised to see a female of this 

 species flutter from her nest about six feet in front of me, and 

 skulk off through the grass with trailing wings and depressed 

 head for some ten or fifteen yards, then stand nearly concealed 

 by a tuft of grass, and watch me as I pillaged her home of its 

 treasures." 



The eggs, four in number (set No. 299), rested in a shallow 

 depression formed by the bird's body in the soft moss, and with, 

 out a trace of lining. These eggs measure, respectively: 1.80x 

 1.21, 1.70x1.20, 1.69x1.20, 1.72x1.23. A second set of four 

 (No. 328), taken on lower ground, June 20th. the same season, 

 measure: 1.80x1.22, 1.72x1.23, 1.87x1.24, 1.83x1.25; and set 

 No. 222, from a boggy flat, but with no nest except the dead 

 grass naturally found on the place occupied, was^taken June 

 13th, the same season, and measure: 1.73x1.23, 1.72x1.23, 

 1.70x1.22, 1.72x1.22. The ground color varies from a greenish 

 clayey olive to a light grayish or clay color. The spots are 

 large, well defined, and scattered sparsely, except about the tip 

 of large end, where they are crowded. These spots are dark 

 umber brown, and present a striking contrast to the ground 

 color. All the eggs mentioned above were fresh, but the young 

 are full grown and on the wing with their parents the last of 

 July, and the first of August finds the adults rapidly changing 

 their breeding dress for that of winter, and gathering into flocks. 

 By the first of September they are in perfect winter dress, and 

 frequent muddy flats, the edges of tide creeks, and other places, 

 exactly as they do in their passage south or north, in middle 

 latitudes. They have the same unsuspicious ways here as there, 

 and may be shot at again and again, as they keep about their 

 wounded comrades. 



