54 Bird- Life in Labrador. 



of this species so abundant in certain localities in the States, 

 though they might have occurred in localities other than those 

 visited by me. 



PECTORAL SANDPIPER JACK SNIPE 



Actodromas maeulata. (V.) COUES. 



ALSO called " grass snipe" from the fact of their preferring 

 grassy and open plats of ground above high tide to the sandy 

 shores of the beach. They often compromise very strongly in 

 favor of some muddy flat at low water, where they will wade 

 in the shallow pools and search for food. It does not appear 

 to be so wild a bird as most of its kindred species, and its shrilly 

 whistled pheu-e, repeated or not, is characteristic of the bird 

 and well known. The flight of the grass snipe is not unlike 

 that of our common snipe, though generally it is more slow 

 and regular. They are seldom found in companies of more 

 than half a dozen together and are more frequently in twos or 

 threes, or even singly. It does not appear to be rare anywhere 

 that I observed along the coast. My notes read : September 

 oO, at Old Fort Island. I shot several of these birds from a 

 passing flock and saw them more than once flying, or on the 

 flats near the house and in the grass on the lawn ; they did 

 not appear common at this time. One specimen had a brown- 

 ish ash suffusion ; another was dark and streaked on a clear ash 

 ground. The latter had the hind neck more widely streaked 

 with black, while in the former it \vas more narrow and of a 

 closer pattern. 



SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER 



ex pnxillux. (L.) CASH. 



THE occurrence of this little sandpiper in Labrador is rather 

 indefinitely fixed in my mind. I can "place" nearly every 

 other species of sandpiper or wader with almost absolute 

 certainty, even in many minute particulars, but either I saw 



