200 
CHARADRIIFORMES 
Field Marks. A little wader, similar to the Buff-breasted in colour, but of different 
habit, habitat, and outline. Has a reddish cap, a light line over the eye, and a white chin. 
Distribution. Eastern parts of eastern hemisphere. Breeds on the Siberian coast 
and only occasionally wanders down to our shores. We have a few records from the 
vicinity of Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Islands. Not to be expected in the 
interior. 
239. Pectoral Sandpiper, grass snipe, la maite^che a poitrine cendr^e. 
Pisobia malanotos. L, 9. A small sandpiper with a distinct, plainly defined, huffy band, 
heavily and evenly streaked with fine, brown 
lines across breast and foreneck. Above — 
dark brown striped with many buff and 
whitish feather edges, rusty in autumn 
juveniles. White below. 
Distinctions. A brown-backed sand- 
piper, with huffy breast-band sharply de- 
fined against white throat and underparts. 
Two other sandpipers — the White-rumped 
anti Baird’s — have similar breast-bands. In 
the White-rumped, the ground colour of the 
band is dull white or ashy rather than buff, 
Figure 286 - the pencilling is sharper, and usually in great- 
Pectoral Sandpiper; er contrast; it also has a white rump which 
scale, I. is absent on the Pectoral. In Baird’s, the 
breast-band is similarly buffy, but decidedly 
less pronounced, and sharply defined at its borders; the striping is obscure and very much 
blended and the back does not give a striped effect. The Pectoral, as a rule, is decidedly 
larger than either of the above, but there is considerable variation in size in the species. 
A bill of one inch or over will separate this species from the others. 
Field Marks. A small sandpiper, with broad, dull breast-band, a striped back, rather 
rusty in autumn, and no other particular recognition marks. Usually found in grassy 
marshes. 
Distribution. North and South America, breeding on the Arctic and Alaska coasts 
from the mouth of the Yukon to the Mackenzie, migrating throughout the whole of 
southern Canada. 
The Pectoral Sandpiper like Wilson’s Snipe is to be found in wet, grassy 
meadows or on mud flats, rarely on sandy beaches. In breeding season it 
develops a neck sac that can be inflated to an extraordinary extent, and it 
indulges in a remarkable flight song. Many of the waders have very inter- 
esting flight songs, but these are confined to the breeding season and the 
immediate vicinity of the nest and are seldom heard by the ordinary 
observer. 
240. White-rumped Sandpiper. Bonaparte’s sandpiper. la maubeche a 
croupion blanc. Pisobia fusicollis. A small sandpiper. White below, brown above, 
variegated with feather edges of shades of buff, rusty, and 
white. In spring, breast and flanks sharply and clearly streaked 
with dark brown. Rump always white. In autumn, the breast 
streaking is often suffused with a vague breast-band of light 
ashy or even pale buffy. 
Distinctions. Very much like an enlarged Least Sandpiper 
(Plate XXV B). May be mistaken, especially in autumn, for 
either the Pectoral or Baird’s Sandpipers, but easily separable 
from them by the white rump. The Stilt Sandpiper also has 
a white rump, is of similar size, and in autumn of similar 
general coloration, but has a considerably longer bill (over 
1 -25, instead of under) with a slightly enlarged tip (See Figure 
295), and long legs reaching beyond the tips of the closed 
wings. 
Field Marks. A small sandpiper lacking strongly deter- 
minate coloration, with a short bill, about the length of the head, and a white rump. 
Figure 287 
White-rumped Sandpiper; 
scale, }. 
