240 
PR^ECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^E. 
markings larger and more numerous toward the obtuse end ; they were quite fresh. 
The nest was under the lee of a small rock, exposed to all the heat the sun can afford 
in that high latitude. This pair must have been late in depositing their eggs, as a 
fortnight later Audubon’s party saw young birds almost as large as their parents ; 
and soon after both parents and young were preparing for their departure south. 
This species, so very generally distributed, so common everywhere — it being 
hardly less numerous than the Ereunetes pusillus — collects in the fall in immense 
flocks, and resorts to the great masses of drifting sea-weed on our coasts, frequenting 
also the shores and sedgy borders of salt ponds, gleaning minute shellfish and marine 
insects. Although most abundant on the borders of the sea, it is not entirely con- 
fined to the shore, but is also found along the margins of the interior lakes and rivers. 
On the shores of Long Island Giraud speaks of it as very plentiful, and as being, 
during the month of September, in excellent condition for the table. By some it is 
considered far superior, both in flavor and in juiciness, to many of our larger shore- 
birds. Its note is low and lisping ; but when alarmed, it moves off in a confused and 
irregular manner, uttering a shrill twitter sounding like the syllables peep-peet. Dur- 
ing October it migrates farther south, reappearing early in the spring on the shores 
of Hew Jersey and Long Island, where it is seen in numbers during each one of the 
summer months, although it is not known to breed within the limits of the United 
States. 
Richardson, who described this bird under two specific appellations, speaks of 
finding it abundant in the autumn, feeding during the recesses of the tide on the ex- 
tensive mud-flats at the mouths of Nelson and Hayes rivers. He adds that it breeds 
within the Arctic Circle, arriving there as soon as the snow melts. As early as the 
21st of May it was observed on the swampy borders of small lakes in latitude 66°. 
Its crop was filled with a soft blackish earth and small white worms. 
This species was found breeding abundantly at Fort Anderson, on the Barren 
Grounds, at Lake Rendezvous, and near the Arctic coast, by Mr. MacFarlane. Of 
the twenty nests, the notes of which we have examined, all but six were taken 
between the 21st and 30th of June, none being recorded as later than the 3d of July. 
The number of eggs is generally given as four — in no instance more. The nests 
were always on the ground, and generally a mere depression, with a lining of a few 
dry leaves and grasses, and usually near small lakes. The female, as she fluttered 
off her nest, often imitated the flight of a wounded bird, and if left undisturbed, 
almost immediately returned to her nest. If persistently interrupted, she kept about 
the nest, and endeavored by simulated lameness to draw off the intruders, soon 
becoming quite wary, if shot at. 
One set of the eggs of this species, collected near the Arctic coast by Mr. MacFar- 
lane (S. I. N"o. 9377), measure 1.15 inches by .85. The ground is a light drab, thinly 
marked with sepia-brown spots, patches of which are suffused with the ground-color, 
giving them an ashy effect. The markings are more numerous, and of greater size 
about the larger end. The eggs are decidedly pyriform in shape. Another set (S. I. 
Ho. 3324), collected on Sable Island, Hova Scotia, by P. S. Dodd, have a light-drab 
ground-color ; but this is almost entirely concealed by the numerous markings of dark 
umber brown. 
