,20 WADING BIRDS. 
uous white tail-coverts. Their note, also, is peculiar, - a low soft 
'inject • 
In habits they differ little from other Sandpipers, — a little more 
confiding and heedless perhaps, and more frequently found on the 
mud-flats and among the sea-weed than on the sand. ^ 
PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 
JACK SNIPE. GRASS SNIPE. KRIEKER. 
'I'ringa maculata. 
Char. Upper parts dusky brown, the feathers margined with buff and 
rufous; rump and tail-coverts dusky; cheeks and throat dull white 
streaked with brown; breast buffy gray streaked with dusky; chin and 
belly white. In winter the plumage is plain gray and white, sometimes 
tinged with pale rufous and buff, Length about inches. 
Kest. Amid a tuft of grass on a dry mound or hill side. 
Eggi. 4; pale buff, greenish drab, or olive brown, thickly blotched 
with rich red brown ; i 50 X l-OS- 
This conspicuous species of Sandpiper, first detected by 
Mr. Say, is by no means uncommon in various parts of t.he 
United States, migrating north, and perhaps west, to breed, 
as it is common in the remote plains of the Mississippi. These 
birds have been killed in abundance on the shores of Cohasset 
and in other parts of Massachusetts Bay, and brought to the 
markets of Boston, being very fat and well flavored. They 
arrive in flocks about the close of August, and continue here, 
as well as in New Jersey, till the month of September, and 
perhaps into October. In some instances solitary individuals 
have been killed in the marshes of Charles River, in Cam- 
bridge, about the 2 2d of July. These were in company with 
the flocks of small Sandpipers ; but whether pairs may perhaps 
breed in the neighboring marshes or not, we have not had the 
means of ascertaining. 
While here, they feed on small coleoptera, larvae, and the 
common green Ulva lattissima, as well as some species of 
Fucus, or sea-weed, on which they become very fat. They 
utter a low, plaintive whistle when started, very similar to that 
