272 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



increase of this species and forty-four report a decrease. Mr. 

 Frank A. Brown of Beverly thinks that its decrease has been 

 more marked than that of any other marsh bird. On the 

 other hand, Mr. Lewis W. Hill says that it was abundant at 

 Martha's Vineyard from 1905 to 1908. Mr. Robert O. Morris 

 states that it formerly was seen sometimes in large flocks in 

 the Connecticut valley. From Nova Scotia to New Jersey all 

 correspondents outside of Massachusetts who mention this 

 species report a serious decrease in its numbers. 



The Grass-bird usually comes in the night, in flocks of 

 twenty-five to fifty birds, and scatters in small parties in the 

 salt marshes, particularly those on which the grass has been 

 cut and where little pools of water stand. It seems to prefer 

 the higher portions of the salt marsh, where the "black grass" 

 grows, and it is sometimes common in the fresh-water mead- 

 ows near ponds in the interior. In such places it collects 

 worms, grubs, insects and snails, such as are commonly found 

 in the marsh. The grass pattern and shading of its back 

 furnish such complete protection from the eye of man that it 

 can conceal itself absolutely by merely squatting in the short 

 grass. Wliere it has not been shot at or disturbed it becomes 

 exceedingly tame and confiding, but old experienced birds are 

 wild, and fly so swiftly and erratically that some of the gunners 

 call them "Jack Snipe" because of a fancied resemblance in 

 their flight to that of Wilson's Snipe. Sometimes they are 

 found in fresh meadows near the salt marsh, and more rarely 

 on the ocean beach, where they follow the retreating wave 

 like the Sanderling or any other beach bird. 



While here in autumn the Pectoral Sandpiper is an ex- 

 tremely fat, gluttonous bird, apparently intent only on filling 

 its stomach, but in early summer in its far northern breeding 

 grounds in Alaska or on the shores of the Arctic Sea it is quite 

 a different being. During the mating season the male develops 

 a great pouch, formed of the skin of the throat and breast, 

 which he is able to inflate until it is nearly as large as the 

 body. He now becomes a song bird, and flutters upwards 

 twenty or thirty yards in the air, as if emulating the famous 

 Skylark, and, inflating his great pouch, glides down again to 



