LIMNOCINCLUS PECTORALIS. 
Pectoral Sandpiper. 
Tringa maculata, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxxiv. p. 465. 
pectoralis. Say, in Long’s Exped., vol. i. p. 171. 
campestris, Licht. Verz. der Doubl., p. 74. 
Pelidna pectoralis, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., p. 50. 
maculata, Bonap. Tabl. des Echass., Compt. Rend, de I’Acad. Sci., tom. xliii., seances des 15 et 22 Sept. 1856. 
Tringa (Actodromm') maculata, Baird, Cat. of N. Amer. Birds in Mus. Smiths. Inst., p. xlvii. no. 531. 
Lhnnocmclus pectoralis, Gould, Handb. Birds of Aust., vol. ii. p. 254. 
I HOPE my fellow-labourers in the field of ornithological science will coincide with me in retaining Say’s 
specific name of pectoralis for this species of Sandpiper, in lieu of the prior hut inappropriate one of 
maculatus assigned to it hy Vieillot — more especially as it is commoidy known, both in its native country 
(xLmerica) and in England, by the trivial name of Pectoral Sandpiper. In the second volume of my 
‘ Handbook to tlie Birds of Australia,’ I have instituted the genus Lhmiocinclus for the reception of this 
species and the old Tringa acuminata of Horsfield, better knoAvn as the T. australis of Jardine and Selby, a 
bird which so nearly resembles the Pectoral Sandpiper in its winter plumage that it is only hy the 
discriminating eye of the ornithologist they can he distinguished the one from the other ; in the summer 
plumage, however, they are very different. 
Although several examples of the L. pectoralis have been killed in the British Islands, they can only he 
regarded as accidental visitors, individuals which have strayed over to this country, ])robahly from America, 
where it ranges far and wide, from the tropics, through Mexico, Texas, and the United States, to Hudson’s 
Bay : the Rev. H. B. Tristram has also killed it in Bermuda. The recorded notices of the Pectoral 
Sandpiper are, unfortunately, of no great Interest; hut such as they are they will be found below: in the 
meanwhile I would observe that I have at this moment before me several specimens in their full nuptial dress, 
and that there is another, finer still, in the collection at the British Aluseum. In this state I notice that the 
breast-feathers are much more lengthened than in winter, and have the spots with which they are adorned 
more sharply defined. These feathers the bird doubtless puffs out when endeavouring to attract the notice of 
the females ; indeed we have reason to believe that the entire chest is then distended, after the manner of 
the Bustard and the domestic Pouter Pigeon, Mr. G. R. Gray having laid before the meeting of the 
Zoological Society of London, held on the 22nd of March, 1859, a drawing of this species made hy the late 
Mr. Adams, Surgeon of H.M.S. ‘ Enterprise,’ representing the bird thus Inflated, and remarked that, from 
the correctness of the other drawings made by the sa,me gentleman, he had no doubt he had observed this 
singular phenomenon in the specimen from which the drawing was taken. “ The drawing was more 
especially placed before the Members in the hopes of learning whether such a singularity of hahits had been 
noticed before in this or any other of the Tringec." In winter the spots on the breast are not seen, their 
place being occupied by longitudinal striae. 
From a paper by the late J. D. Hoy, published in the ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ new series, vol. i. 
p. 115, we learn that the first occurrence of the Pectoral Sandpiper in England was “noticed, and a plate 
given, by Eyton in his Continuation of Bewick’s ‘Birds.’ It was killed on the 17th of October, 1830, on 
the borders of Breydon Broad, an extensive sheet of water near Yarmouth, rather celebrated for the 
numerous rare birds which have, at different times, been observed and shot on its hanks and waters. The 
person who killed it remarked that it was solitary, and its note was new to him, which induced him to shoot 
it. It proved, on dissection, to be a female.” Dr. Edward Clarke informed Mr. Yarrell that another had 
been shot very near Hartlepool, in October 1841. 
In a note from Mr. H. Stevenson, of Norwich, dated January 29, 1868, that gentleman says : — “ I send you 
the dates of Mr. Gurney’s and my Pectoral Sandpipers, as you requested. Mr. Gurney’s was shot near 
Yarmouth, on the 30th of September, 1853; he had an opportunity of examining it in the flesh, and on dissection 
it proved to be a female and apparently a bird of the year ; it was not fat, but in vei'y fair condition. Its 
stomach contained some small seeds and the remains of a few insects, too much mutilated to be 
recognizable. Mine was shot at Caistor, near Yarmouth, on the 16th of September, 1865. It was brought 
in the flesh to one of our bird-stuffers, from whom I purchased it.” Only last week. Dr. Lowe, of Lynn, sent 
me, to examine, not knowing what it was, another Pectoral Sandpiper,which had been netted in Terrington 
Marsh ; it is now in the Lynn Museum. This also was a female and a young bird of the last year ; the spots 
on the breast were very small, none of them transverse ; a few new feathers, with rufous edgings, were 
making their appearance. This is the fourth authenticated Norfolk specimen. 
