PECTORAL SANDPIPER. 
Juvenile . Crown and nape as adult in summer ; mantle and scapulars blackish-brown, feathers 
edged with tawny, ochraceous-buff and cream-white, remaining upper, and under parts and 
tail as is the adult in summer ; wing as in the summer adult, but the median and lesser 
coverts sepia or blackish-brown, edged with tawny, ochraceous and light buff (Pract. Handb.). 
Nestling. Forehead white, suffused with yellowish buff ; a black median band from the base of the 
upper mandible to the crown ; crown mottled black and tawny and dotted with irregular 
tufts of cream ; nape yellowish-buff, the down blackish at the base ; remainder of the under¬ 
parts like the crown, but intermixed with yellowish-buff ; a blackish-brown line from the 
lores to the eye ; cheeks and fore-neck white suffused with yellowish-buff; remainder of 
the under-parts white (ib) (fig. Ibis, 1907, pi. xn.). 
Nest. A compact structure, capable of being moved ; composed of grass, and lined with small 
crisp leaves, placed in a depression in the ground, well hidden under the curly grass. Always 
in dry localities. Inside diameter 3 to 3i inches ; depth If to ; outside depth 3J to 5 
inches (Bent). 
Eggs. Clutch four, subpyriform to ovate pyriform, smooth, almost polished surface ; ground colour 
from dull white to deep olive-buff ; the surface markings bold and individual and appear as 
if they were daubed with a paint brush ; large rich spots are elongated and placed parallel 
to the axis ; the heaviest markings are at the larger end ; the top markings range from 
walnut-brown to chocolate ; the underlying ones pearly-grey to violet-grey. The average 
of 116 eggs is 36.5 mm. by 25 (Bent) (fig. Ibis, 1907, pi. xi.). 
Breeding-season. May 27th to July 3rd, Alaska. 
Distribution. Alaska (breeding), wandering through America to the south of South America. 
Europe. New Zealand in January, February and March (Bent). 
In the Auk., Vol. LIII., p. 81, January, 1936, Major Allan Brooks records the 
Pectoral Sandpiper (Pisobia melanotas) for Australia. A skin in the Melbourne 
Museum was collected at Albany, West Australia, in 1910, the year that the 
species was common in New Zealand, to which latter country it is an irregular 
visitor. 
Major Brooks says that in winter plumage the Pectoral and Sharp-tailed 
Sandpipers are very much alike : both have the fore-neck greyish and thickly 
streaked with blackish; in the Sharp-tail the markings tend to cordate and 
sagitate shapes and extend to the flanks and even to the centre of the abdomen; 
in the Pectoral the dark markings are narrow shafts streaks only, the flanks 
are almost immaculate and the rest of the lower surface is entirely so. 
The shaft of the first primary is wholly white in the Pectoral and white 
with a brownish base in the Sharp-tail. 
The young in first plumage and adult in summer of the Sharp-tailed Sand¬ 
piper are easily distinguished from the Pectoral by colour alone; the former 
has hardly any markings on the fore-neck, which is deep buff. 
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