340 



RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



The common name of this species on our sea-coast is the 

 gray-back, and among the gunners it is a particular favourite, 

 being generally a plump, tender, and excellent bird for the 

 table ; and, consequently, brings a good price in market. 



The gray-backs do not breed on the shores of the middle 

 States. Their first appearance is early in May. They remain 

 a few weeks, and again disappear until October. They usually 

 keep in small flocks, alight in a close body together on the 

 sand flats, where they search for the small bivalve shells already 

 described. On the approach of the sportsman, they frequently 

 stand fixed and silent for some time ; do not appear to be 

 easily alarmed, neither do they run about in the water as 

 much as some others, or with the same rapidity, but appear 

 more tranquil and deliberate. In the month of November 

 they retire to the south. 



This species is ten inches long, and twenty in extent ; the 

 bill is black, and about an inch and a half long ; the chin, 

 eyebrows, and whole breast are a pale brownish orange colour ; 

 crown, hind head from the upper mandible backwards, and 

 neck, dull white, streaked with black ; back, a pale slaty olive, 

 the feathers tipt with white, barred and spotted with black 

 and pale ferruginous ; tail-coverts, white, elegantly barred 

 with black ; wings, plain, dusky black towards the extremity ; 

 the greater coverts, tipt with white ; shafts of the primaries, 

 white ; tail, pale ashy olive, finely edged with white, the two 

 middle feathers somewhat the longest ; belly and vent, white, 

 the latter marked with small arrow-heads of black ; legs and 

 feet, black ; toes, bordered with a narrow membrane ; eye, 

 small and black. 



In some specimens, both of males and females, the red on 

 the breast was much paler, in others it descended as far as 

 the thighs. Both sexes seemed nearly alike. 



