244 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
allowing one to approach closely, not even suspending its occu- 
pation of searching for food. Should a gun be discharged as ' 
the little company draws itself together, the survivors fly a short 
distance in a compact flock, uttering a low, soft tweet, exhibit- 
ing the upper- and then under side of the body as they wheel 
and turn swiftly, and then frequently alight near the very spot 
where their companions were slaughtered. AVhen on the wing 
it is recognisable by its white upper tail-coverts, which are very 
conspicuous. In Labrador it is very abundant, frequenting 
the rocky shores covered with sea-weed or green and slippery 
from the flying spray. It also resorts to muddy flats and shal- 
low pools, into which it w’ades up to the breast in search of 
marine insects and various animalculae, on which it feeds. It 
is rather a common bird at certain seasons on the shores of 
Lake Michigan, having been taken in Illinois, and also in 
Michigan. In the far north it is a straggler at Point Barrow in 
Alaska, and also breeds on the Mackenzie river. MacFarlane , 
found the nest on the shore of the Arctic Sea, and on the Bar- 
ren Ground. This was merely a depression in the ground 
lined with a few decayed leaves, and contained three or four ' 
eggs, rufous-drab in colour, blotched with dark brown or black, 
confluent at the larger end, and measuring 0-35 inch long by 
o’95 broad.” 
II. THE sharp-tailed pectoral sandpiper, heteropygia I 
acuminata. 
Totanus acuminata, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 192 (1821). 
Tringa acuminata, Seebohm, Ibis, 1893, PP- 181-183, pi- v. 
Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. — General colour above sandy- 
rufous, streaked with black down the centre of the feathers, 
these black centres being much more distinct on the scapulars 
and inner secondaries, where the rufous margins are very 
bright ; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts dusky-black, 
the lateral ones sandy-rufous barred with black; lesser wing- ' 
coverts dull brown ; the median coverts brown with blackish 
centres and ashy fulvous margins ; the greater coverts uniform ' 
dusky-brown with white tips ; bastard-wing uniform brown ; j 
the primary-coverts blackish, the inner ones tipped with white ; 
