BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 125 
TRINGA MACULATA VIeEILLoT. § (239.) 
PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 
This familiar bird to the sportsmen is a common species dur- 
ing its migrations, arriving in spring about the 1st of April, or 
a trifle later, and remaining until about the first week in May. 
They appear in very small scattered parties, or singly. While 
with us they seem to become paired, as in shooting one, another 
one is almost sure to flush, and quite certain to be if hunted 
with a dog, when the two are found to represent opposite 
sexes. They are usually found on dry meadows near to that 
which is somewhat wet, and their food is principally crickets 
in spring, interlarded with various dry-land larvee, small beetles 
and ground worms. In the fall the grasshoppers are first 
chosen, after which crickets and whatever other insects prevail 
at the season. They remain almost unobserved by any one 
except the sportsman until about the 20th of October before 
moving away southward, but are not all gone very quickly then. 
Never really abundant, but uniformly fairly common in their 
migrations, and now well known to breed in nearly ail portions 
of the State to some extent. It was not until I had been on a 
close lookout for their local habits in this respect for many 
years that I obtained a nest with three eggs, in the neighbor- 
hood of Herman. Having often seen some of these birds in the 
market in June, in the earlier years of my residence here, I 
could have no doubts of their breeding here, and I had read in 
the Pacific Railroad Reports that ‘“This species has been as- 
certained to breed abundantly in Wisconsin by Professor T. 
Kumlein, an energetic cultivator of zoological science, now 
resident in that state,” when I was directed to the locality where 
the birds had been observed by a hunting friend of mine. It 
was no small task to find the nest, but the reward was amply 
satisfactory. It was placed directly on the ground, which was 
hollowed out somewhat, and consisted of a small quantity of 
dried grass, loosely disposed, and containing three eggs, col 
ored yellowish-gray with spots of amber thickly scattered 
around the larger end. Since then, I have received satisfac- 
tory assurances that they have been found by others in several 
sections of the State. Their habits, and their relative num- 
bers, make observations of them during the incubating season 
extremely difficult. 
