3IO NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



and legs dusk^- greenish, or ochery. Winter: Similar, but the ocherous 

 buflE of the upper parts largely replaced by rufous and whitish. Young: 

 Similar, but less brightly marked. 



Length 8-9.5 inches; extent 15-18; wing 4.75-5.7 ; tail 2.1-2.4; length- 

 ening of central tail feathers about .35; tarsus i-i.i; bill 1.1-1.2. The 

 male is decidedly the larger. 



This is the largest of our sandpipers of this genus with dusky and buff 

 streaked breast and buffy or rufous edgings of the black feathers. Its 

 breast is also more heavily streaked and its central tail feathers more 

 elongated and pointed. Its note also which gives it the name of Krieker 

 or Kreeker, is distinctive. 



The Pectoral sandpiper, Grass snipe, or Kreeker, is a common migrant 

 on all suitable marshes and mud fiats in the State. It is more often found 

 in meadows and flats with scattered cover than our other sandpipers, 

 much resembling the Wilson snipe in this respect. Its grating whistle 

 and habit of crouching in the grass and springing singly with zigzag flight 

 when approached, also remind one of that bird. Its flesh compares quite 

 favorably in flavor with that of the Snipe, and it is the smallest of our 

 shore birds which I could consent to regard as legitimate game for the 

 sportsman. 



As might be expected from the habits of this bird, it is more generally 

 distributed in the interior than the species which frequent the bars and 

 bare shores, and is a common fall migrant along our lakes and rivers. In 

 the spring it makes its appearance from the 2 2d of March to the loth of 

 April and is sometimes seen as late as the 26th of May. In the fall it is 

 much more common, arriving from the 15th to the 30th of July, usually 

 commonest during the month of September, and passes southward from the 

 20th of October to the loth of November, stragglers sometimes occurring 

 till the last of that month. It winters in the West Indies and South America 

 and breeds in the arctic regions. The male inflates its throat and breast 

 in the breeding season and utters a deep, resonant note [Nelson]. 



