CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 1 59 



species to our fauna. Afterwards it was found to be the most 

 common species of 'snipe at St. Michael, frequenting the borders 

 of brackish pools and tide-creeks in company with other species. 

 At Port Clarence and Kotzebue Sound, single specimens have 

 been taken and these, with those taken by the writer at St. 

 Michael, include all the specimens up to date. (Nelson.) Taken 

 at Massett, Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C., Dec. 27th, 1897, by 

 Rev. J. H. Keen. {Fannin.) A species of Eastern Asia and evi- 

 dently breeding near the mouth of the Yukon. 



■v 



339. Pectoral Sandpiper. Jack-snipe. 



Tringa maculata Vieill. 1819. 



One was received from Greenland in 1851 by the Copenhagen 

 Museum, and two others were sent there from near Disco in 1859. 

 {Arct. Man.) Occasional in Greenland. Several skins have been 

 taken since i860. {Winge.) A common migrant along the whole 

 Atlantic Coast from Cape Chudleigh south to New Brunswick, 

 and in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba, but rare farther west. 

 Only one specimen was seen by Mr. Spreadborough at Indian 

 Head, Assa., in the spring of 1892, and further west, along Milk 

 River, a female was shot, July i6th, 1895. 



Nelson and Murdoch say that it is common in Alaska, breeding 

 in numbers as far north as Point Barrow. North of the Mackenzie 

 River and along the Anderson River, farther east, it is quite rare, 

 as Macfarlane saw very few and obtained no nests. Fannin and 

 Brooks report that it is not common in the migrations in British 

 Columbia. On Stubb Island, on the west coast of Vancouver 

 Island, Spreadborough killed ten at one shot in August, 1893. 



Breeding Notes. — This species arrives at Point Barrow about 

 the end of May or early in June, and frequents the small ponds 

 and marshy portions of the tundra along the shore, sometimes 

 associated with other small waders, especially with the Buff- 

 breasted Sandpiper, on the high banks of the Nunava. They 

 begin pairing soon after their arrival, and are frequently to be 

 seen chasing each other in the air with a loud chatter. The nest 

 is always built in the grass, with a decided preference for high 

 and dry localities, such as the banks of gullies and streams, It is 

 sometimes placed at the edge of a small pool, but always in grass 

 and in a dry place, never in the black clay and moss, like the 



