48 
PECTORAL SANDPIPER, 
rapidly, and generally fly near the surface of the water in a 
straight line, and during the day, only short distances. Their 
flesh, though esculent, is by no means palatable, being too fishy: 
they grow amazingly fat in autumn, though their fat is not firm, 
but very oily. They are caught however in Italy by spreading 
nets on their feeding grounds, and in the United States great 
numbers are destroyed by the gun. 
Spread over all the globe, some of the species even, the Sand¬ 
pipers are very difficult to distinguish from one another, marked 
traits being few, and detailed descriptions applying mostly to 
individual specimens. The species have been wantonly multiplied 
by superficial observers, and too much reduced perhaps by scien¬ 
tific men. We must chiefly rely on the relative dimensions of 
the bill and the length of the tarsus in fixing them. In North 
America are found at least ten of the subgenus Tringa , most of 
which likewise inhabit Europe, that has eight: the Pectoral 
Sandpiper is the only one besides the T. pusilla of those American 
registered in our Synopsis that is not found in Europe. 
This new species, though it is quite as large, if not larger than 
the Tringa alpina has a shorter bill; which is besides reddish at 
base, distinguishing it at once from all the species it could be 
confounded with, since each of them has the bill entirely black: 
the T. maritima and T. platyrhynca have a similarly coloured bill, 
but are otherwise too well marked to be mistaken; the former 
by the restricted naked space of the tibia, and the latter by the 
depressed form of its bill. 
The Pectoral Sandpiper is eight and a half inches long, some 
females being nearly nine : the bill is little more than an inch 
long, compressed throughout, reddish yellow at base, the rest 
black, and with a few Snipe-like punctures near the tip. The 
crown of the head is black, each feather margined with rufous : 
the orbits, a line over the eye, and the forehead narrowly are 
