162 FEATHERED GAME 
in the sea marshes of New England there are 
usually many of this family running about, 
probing into the soft, oozy soil, and feeding on 
the worms, snails and slugs so abundant there. 
They are very welcome to the gunner since they 
are good table birds, fat and well-flavored at 
any season. Grassbirds come readily to the 
gunner’s call, single birds or flocks coming 
equally well to the imitation of their note. 
Their whistle is almost identical with that of 
the smaller sandpipers and the two are often 
found in company. 
During the courtship the male bird inflates 
the skin of his throat and breast to such an ex- 
tent that it hangs down upon his breast like a 
bag. From this circumstance comes the name, 
Pectoral Sandpiper. Yet he is probably no 
more ‘‘puffed up’’ at his success than is the hu- 
man bridegroom at the same important epoch 
in his career. 
The Grassbird’s clothing is of sober tints; the 
top of his head brown with black markings, 
these mainly in the centres of the feathers; 
throat white; sides of the head and around neck 
pale yellowish brown with small black streaks 
running through it. Superciliary stripe of white, 
