PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 89 



GRALLATORES. SCOLOPACIDJE. 



PLATE CCII. 



PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 



TRINGA PECTORALIS. 



The Pectoral Sandpiper is a bird of rare occurrence in 

 Britain, and has not hitherto been met with in any other 

 part of Europe. Its native regions are the northern and 

 north-western parts of America. Mr. Audubon describes 

 this bird as frequenting the sea-shore and the mouths of 

 rivers, where it may be seen, most particularly at low-water, 

 in search of food, which it procures by probing the soft mud 

 or sand with its beak, for insects ; it has never been met 

 with in the interior by any ornithologists that we are aware 

 of, whence one may with propriety infer that its favourite 

 locality is by the sea- side, and its food marine insects. 

 Respecting the reproduction of the species, nothing is as 

 yet known or described. 



The dimensions of the present species are as follows ; the 

 entire length nearly nine inches; the beak one inch one line; 

 the wing, from the carpus to the tip, five inches two lines ; 

 the tarsus one inch ; the middle toe, without the nail, one 

 inch. 



The top of the head is rufous brown, spotted with dusky ; 

 the nape cinereous : the hinder part of the neck, back, 



vol. v. I 



