AMEKICAN PECTORAL SANDPIPER 285 



Food. The food consists of worms, small shell-fish, 

 insects, and seaweeds. In the gizzard of the immature 

 female bird, mentioned above as taken in Belmullet, co. 

 Mayo, in October, 1900, I found the legs and wing-cases 

 of small lustrous-green beetles, an entire light brown- 

 coloured larva half an inch in length, pebbles, some 

 measuring 2 mm. in size, and some fine sand. 



Voice. The note, heard in the pairing-season, is a 

 muffled hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo (Saunders). 



Nest. The nest is built in dry situations amidst grasses. 

 The eggs, four in number, are drab or greenish, blotched 

 with umber-brown. In the breeding-season this species 

 has the power of inflating the lower part of its throat, so 

 that its breast appears unduly distended ; hence the name 

 ' Pectoral ' Sandpiper. 



Geographical distribution. This Sandpiper is distributed 

 in the breeding-season over the greater part of Northern 

 and Sub-arctic Canada. On migration southward in 

 autumn, it is widely distributed over the Temperate regions 

 of the American Continent, and the great Island-Groups, 

 its winter-range extending to lat. 40 S. in South America. 



DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 



PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial. Head, neck, and back, 

 dark brown with rufous margins ; wings, thinly barred with 

 white ; upper and under tail-coverts, dusky-brown ; central 

 tail-feathers, very dark brown, lateral tail-feathers, lighter 

 brown ; cheeks and throat, dull white striped with brown ; 

 breast, buff -coloured, streaked with brown ; abdomen, 

 white. 



Adult female nuptial. Similar to the male plumage. 



Adult winter, male and female. Resembles the nuptial 

 plumage but there is less rufous on the back and wings, and 

 the general shade is browner. 



Immature, male and female. The stripes on the breast 

 are somewhat less marked than in the adult, and there is 

 more rufous on the back and wings ; scapulars and inner 

 secondaries, margined with white. 



BEAK. Greenish-black. 



FEET. Dull yellowish-brown. 



IRIDES. Dark-brown. 



