THE PFXTORAL SANDPIPERS. 
249 
tunity to observe the bird as it uttered its singular notes, under 
a variety of situations, and at various hours of the day, or 
during the light Arctic night. The note is deep, hollow, and 
resonant, but at the same time liquid and musmal, and may be 
represented by a repetition of the syllables fdo-fi, tod-u, too-ti, 
too-u, tdo u, ioo-u, tod-A, too-A. Before the bird utters these 
notes it fills its esophagus with air to such an extent that the 
breast and throat is inflated to twice or more its natural size, 
and the great air-sac thus formed gives the peculiar resonant 
quality to the note. 
“ The skin of the throat and breast becomes very flabby and 
loose at this season, and its inner surface is covered with 
small globular masses of fat. When not inflated, the skin, 
loaded with this extra weight and with a slight serous suffusion 
which is present, hangs down in a pendulous flap or fold 
exactly like a dewlap, about an inch and a half wide. The 
esophagus is very loose, and becomes remarkably soft and 
distensible, but is easily ruptured in this state, as I found by 
dissection. The bird may be frequently seen running along 
the ground close to the female, its enormous sac inflated and 
its head drawn back and the bill pointing directly forward, or, 
filled with spring-time vigour, the bird flits with slow but with 
energetic wing-strokes close along the ground, its head raised 
high over its shoulders and the tail hanging almost directly 
down. As it thus flies it utters a succession of the hollow 
booming notes, which have a strange ventriloquial quality. At 
times the male rises twenty or thirty yards in the air and, in- 
flating its throat, glides down to the ground with its sac hang- 
intr below. Again he crosses back and forth in front of the 
female puffing his breast out and bowing from side to side, 
running here and there, as if intoxicated with passion. When- 
ever he pursues his love-making, his rather low but pervading 
note swells and dies in musical cadences, which form a strik- 
ing part of the great bird chorus heard at this season in the 
north.” 
ifest Placed in some high and dry situation and built in 
the grass. 
Eggs. Four in number, of the usual pear-shaped form. 
The ground-colour is pale stone-grey, the spotting being very 
