Birds of Massachusetts. 215 
sey. They resemble other sandpipers in their habits 
and food, but even Audubon has never found them 
breeding. ; 
The Pecrorat SawpPreER, Tringa pectoralis, is 
more abundant on the shores of Massachusetts Bay 
than in any other part of the country. "They arrive 
at the last of August, and remain till the fall of the 
leaf, feeding on insects and a kind of seaweed. 
Their northern breeding places are as yet entirely 
unknown. 
The Burr-sreastep SANDPIPER, Tringa rufes- 
cens, is not uncommon in the Boston market, in 
August and September, but so rare in other parts 
of the country, that Wilson never saw it, and Audu- 
bon first met with it in England. He received a 
wing of this bird from Captain Ross, that was picked 
up by a sailor on the Arctic expedition, and this is 
all we know concerning it in the regions where it 
must undoubtedly breed. Here it associates with 
the preceding species, which it resembles in form, 
though not in plumage, and feeds with it, on insects, 
partieularly grasshoppers, which abound in the neigh- 
borhood of the sea. 
The Broap-situep SANDPIPER, Tringa platyrhin- 
ea, is very rare in the United States, but I am ena- 
bled to add it to our list, on the authority of Mr. S. 
Cabot, Jr., who procured a specimen at Nahant, the 
only one which, to my knowledge, has been found 
in Massachusetts. 
