372 GAME BIBDS OF CALIFORNIA 



with loud, repeated cries, and make off in an irregular manner, much 

 like the common Snipe. Sometimes, gaining a considerable elevation, 

 they circle for several minutes in silence overhead, flying v^ith great 

 velocity, perhaps to pitch down again nearly perpendicularly upon 

 the same spot they sprang from." 



The Pectoral Sandpiper- decoys readily as do many other shore 

 birds. When on the ground it walks deliberately, with the bill held 

 downward. Upon alighting, which all the birds in a flock are said 

 to do at the same moment, the wings are raised above the body for an 

 instant and then neatly folded. In flight the birds mass into com- 

 pact flocks (Sanford, Bishop and Van Dyke, 1903, p. 372). 



Thes(3 birds arrive on the shores of Bering Sea and the Arctic 

 Ocean from the middle to the last of May (Cooke, 1910, p. 36). They 

 linger about the wet spots where green herbage is just beginning to 

 show through the tundra, and then pair and seek nesting places. 



Nesting probably begins about the first of June and continues 

 throughout the month and even into the early part of July, as Nelson 

 (1987, p. 108) observed a male in nuptial flight on May 24, and 

 Murdoch (1885, p. 112) states that the last eggs which were brought 

 in, on July 12, contained only small embryos. Probably the bulk of 

 the species nests about the middle or latter part of June. 



The mating antics of this species have been very fully described 

 by Nelson. The male inflates his throat until it is as large as his 

 body and then utters a deep, hollow, resonant yet liquid and musical 

 note, which may be represented by the repetition of the syllables too'-u, 

 too'-u, too'-u, ioo'u. The air sac gives the resonant quality to the 

 note. The note is uttered under a variety of conditions and at various 

 times during the day or light Arctic night. Apparently the birds 

 fill the esophagus with air only just previous to making the notes. 



The skin of the throat and breast becomes very flabby and loose at this 

 season, and its inner surface is covered with small globular masses of fat. 

 When not' inflated, the skin loaded with this extra weight and with a slight 

 serous suffusion which is present hangs down in a pendulous flap or fold 

 exactly like a dewlap, about an inch and a half wide. The oesophagus is 

 very loose and becomes remarkably soft and distensible, but is easily ruptured 

 in this state. . . . The [male] bird may frequently be seen running along 

 the ground close to the female, its enormous sac inflated, and its head drawn 

 back and the bill pointing directly forward, or, filled with spring-time vigor, 

 the bird flits with slow but energetic wing-strokes close along the ground, 

 its head raised high over the shoulders and the tail hanging almost directly 

 down. As it thus flies it utters a succession of the hollow booming notes, 

 which have a strange ventriloquial quality. At times the male rises 20 or 30 

 yards in the air and inflating its throat glides down to the ground with its sac 

 hanging below. . . . Again he crosses back and forth in front of the female, 

 pufSng his breast out and bowing from side to side, running here and there, 

 as if intoxicated with passion. Whenever he pursues his love-making, his 



