214 
PRyECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOLiE. 
1853. On the 28th of July, 1875, Dr. Coppinger came across a party of six birds, 
several miles inland from Fort Foulke. They were feeding near a rill, and were very 
wild ; but he secured a male in the full breeding-plumage. August 25, 1875, Mr. 
Feilden observed several of these birds near the water’s edge in Discovery Bay (lat. 
81° 44' N.). The rills and marshes were frozen, and the birds were feeding along the 
shore on small crustaceans ; in pursuit of their prey they ran breast high into the 
water. They had lost their breeding-plumage. On June 5, 1876, while camped near 
Knot Harbor, Grinned] Land (lat. 82° 33' N.), he noted the first arrival of this species. 
A flock of fourteen or more were circling over a hillside, alighting on bare patches, 
and feeding eagerly on the buds of the saxifraga. Subsequently he met with it in 
considerable numbers, but always wild and difficult of approach. Their cry was wild, 
and like that of the Curlew. Immediately after their arrival they began to mate, at 
this season soaring high in the air like the Common Snipe. When descending from a 
height they beat their wings behind the back with a rapid motion, producing a loud 
whirring noise. On the 30th of July, 1876, three of the seamen, walking by the bor- 
der of a small lake, came upon an old bird accompanied by three nestlings. The old 
bird proved to be a male. Its stomach and those of the young ones were filled Avith 
insects. Dr. Coppinger informed Mr. Feilden that the bird Avas not uncommon at 
Thank-God Harbor, and in the first Aveek in August the latter saAV family parties at 
Shift-R udder Bay (lat. 81° 52' N.) in the gray autumn plumage. It also bred in the 
vicinity of Discovery Bay ; but no eggs Avere found there, although the young Avere 
obtained in all stages of plumage. 
On the American coast this bird occurs, in its migrations, in most of the Atlantic 
States, and in the Avinter in the West Indies, and probably on the Gulf coast of Mex- 
ico. It breeds in the high Arctic Regions, in the northeastern portions. Sir Edward 
Parry, in his first voyage, found it breeding in great abundance on the North Georgian 
Islands ; and on his second voyage a single specimen — a young male of the season — 
Avas shot on the 17th of August in the Duke of York’s Bay. Sir John Richardson 
also mentions that this species Avas observed breeding on Melville Peninsula by Cap- 
tain Lyons, who stated that this bird lays four eggs on a tuft of Avithered grass, 
without being at the pains of forming any nest. In the “ Fauna Boreali-Americana ” 
the same Avriter adds that this bird breeds in Hudson’s Bay, and down to the fifty- 
fifth parallel. He describes the eggs as having a light yelloAvish ground, marked at 
the larger end Avith spots of gray and reddish, which form, in a greater or less 
degree, a zone ; but the smaller end is nearly unspotted. 
Specimens of this Wader were procured at Nulato, in May, by Mr. Pease, at Sitka 
by Mr. Bisclioff, and at St. Michael’s by Mr. Bannister, and also at Hnalaklik by Mr. 
Potter. 
Mr. Boardman .informs us that it occurs in small flocks in the neighborhood of 
Calais, Me., but is never very abundant there, being seen only in the spring and 
fall migrations, and none remaining to breed. It is known there as the Robin Snipe. 
In Massachusetts this bird is regarded by some hunters as having become less abun- 
dant than it was formerly known to be. Mr. William Brewster has met with it in 
the spring in small flocks of five or six ; this was late in May, and it was then rather 
abundant. It comes regularly in the fall about the middle of August, and thence to 
the 1st of September. 
Mr. Frank H. Tileston, however, informs me that these birds arrive in Barnstable 
County, Mass., in their migrations nortliAvard, Avitli great punctuality, about the 20th 
of May. They still come in large flocks every year, but rarely stay more than a day 
or two, passing immediately northward. At Eastham, May 20, 1875, he noted their 
