PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 201 



TRINGA PECTORALIS. 

 PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 



(PLATE 68.) 



Tringa cinclus dominicensis, Briss. Orn. v. p. 219 (1760). 



Tringa maculata, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxiv. p. 465 (1819). 



Pelidua pectoralis, Say, Long's Exp. i. p. 171 (1823) ; et auctorum plurimorum 

 (Cassin), (Bonaparte), (Nuttall), (Audubon), (Reinhardt), (Jenyns), (Yarrell), 

 (Eyton), (Keyserling fy Blasim), (Macgillivray), (Temminck), (Schleael), (Gray}, 

 (Meyer), (Sundevall). 



Schaenicola pectoralis (Say), Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus. iii. p. 104 (1844). 



Tringa dominicensis, Deal. Orn. Eur. ii. p. 232 (1849). 



Pelidna maculata ( Vieill.}, Bonap. Compt. Rend, xliii. p. 596 (1856). 



Actodromas maculata, Coues, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1861, pp. 197, 230. 



The Pectoral Sandpiper has occurred so often in the British Islands that 

 it may fairly be regarded as an irregular straggler on autumn migration. 

 Of the numbers that pass along the Atlantic coasts of North America, and 

 cross the Bermudas annually on their journey southwards, it is only 

 reasonable to expect that a few may take the wrong direction, or get 

 blown out to sea by gales, and after safely crossing the Atlantic, strike 

 some part of the British coasts. The first example of the Pectoral Sand- 

 piper to be honoured with a record was obtained on the 17th of October 

 1830, on the borders of Breydon Broad, a large sheet of water near Yar- 

 mouth in Norfolk. It proved to be a female (Hoy, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, 

 i. p. 116). Since then three other examples have been obtained in Norfolk, 

 of the authenticity of which there is no doubt ; four have been captured in 

 Scilly, one in Cornwall, two in Devon, one in Sussex, one in Suffolk, one 

 in Yorkshire, one in Durham, and two in Northumberland. Only two 

 examples have been recorded from Scotland, one in Dumbartonshire and 

 one in Aberdeenshire. Of these occurrences fourteen were on autumn 

 migration from August to October, and two on spring migration in May 

 and June. Curiously enough, this American Sandpiper has not yet been 

 detected in Ireland, but there can be little doubt that it has been over- 

 looked in that country. There is no record of this species occurring in 

 any part of continental Europe. 



The Pectoral Sandpiper is probably confined to Arctic America during 

 the breeding-season. It has occurred as far west as Alaska, and as far 

 east as Greenland. It passes through the United States on migration, 

 and visits the Bermuda Islands regularly, sometimes in enormous flocks. 

 It winters in Mexico, the West Indies, .Central America, and probably 

 throughout South America, 



