214 PR^COCIAL GKALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



1853. On the 28tli of July, 1875, Dr. Coppinger came across a party of six birds, 

 several miles iulaucl from Fort Foulke. Tliey were feeding near a rill, and were very 

 wild; but he secured a male in the full breeding-jjlumage. August 25, 1875, Mr. 

 Feilden observed several of these birds near the water's edge in Discovery Bay (lat. 

 81° 44' jST.). The rills and marshes were frozen, and the birds were feeding along the 

 shore on small crustaceans ; in pursuit of their prey they ran breast high into the 

 water. They had lost their breeding-plumage. On June 5, 1876, while camped near 

 Knot Harbor, Grinnell Land (lat. 82° 33' jST.), he noted the first arrival of this species. 

 A flock of fourteen or more were circling over a hillside, alighting on bare patches, 

 and feeding eagerly on the buds of the saxifraga. Subsequently he met with it in 

 considerable numbers, but always wild and difficult of approach. Their cry was wild, 

 and like that of the Curlew. Immediately after their arrival they began to mate, at 

 this season soaring high in the air like the Common Snipe. When descending from a 

 height they beat their wings behind the back with a rapid motion, producing a loud 

 whirring noise. On the 3()th of July, 1876, three of the seamen, walking by the l)or- 

 der of a small lake, came upon an old bird accompanied by three nestlings. The old 

 bird jiroved to be a male. Its stomach and those of the young ones were filled with 

 insects. Dr. C!oppinger informed Mr. Feilden that the bird was not uncommon at 

 Thank-God Harbor, aud in the first week in August the latter saw family parties at 

 Shift-Rudder Bay (lat. 81° 52' jSf.) in the gray autumn plumage. It also bred in the 

 vicinity of Discovery Bay ; but no eggs were found there, although the young were 

 obtained in all stages of plumage. 



On the American coast this bird occurs, in its migrations, in most of the Atlantic 

 States, and in the winter in the AVest Indies, and probably on the Gulf coast of Mex- 

 ico. It breeds in the high Arctic Regions, in the- northeastern portions. Sir Edward 

 Parry, in his first voyage, found it breeding in great abundance on the North Georgian 

 Islands ; and on his second voyage a single specimen — a young male of the season — 

 was shot on the 17tli of August in the Duke of York's Bay. Sir John Richardson 

 also mentions that this species was observed breeding on ]\Ielville Peninsula by Cap- 

 tain Lyons, who stated that this bird lays four eggs on a tuft of withered grass, 

 without being at the pains of forming any nest. In the "Fauna Boreali-Americana " 

 the same writer adds that this bird breeds in Hudson's Bay, and down to the fifty- 

 fifth parallel. He describes the eggs as having a light yellowish ground, marked at 

 the larger end with spots of gray and reddish, which form, in a greater or less 

 degree, a zone ; but the smaller end is nearly unspotted. 



Specimens of this Wader were procured at JSTnlato, in May, liy Mr. Pease, at Sitka 

 by Mr. Bischoff, and at St. Michael's by Mr. Bannister, and also at Unalaklik by Mr. 

 Potter. 



Mr. Boardman informs us that it occurs in small flocks in the neighliorhood of 

 Calais, jVIe., but is never very abundant there, being seen only in the spring and 

 fall migrations, aud none remaining to breed. It is known there as the Robin Snipe. 

 In Massachusetts this bird is regarded by some hunters as having become less abun- 

 dant than it was formerly known to be. Mr. William Brewster has met with it in 

 the spring in small flocks of five or six ; this was late in IMay, and it was then rather 

 abundant. It comes regularly in the fall alxiut the middle of August, and thence to 

 the 1st of September. 



Mr. Frank H. Tileston, however, informs me that these birds arrive in Barnstable 

 County, Mass., in their migrations northward, with great punctuality, about the 20th 

 of May. They still come in large flocks every year, but rarely stay more than a day 

 or two, passing immediately northward. At Eastham, May 20, 1875, he noted their 



