LIMNOCINCLUS PECTORALIS.
Pectoral Sandpiper.

Tringa maculata, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. XXXIV. p. 465.
—— pectoralts, Say, in Long’s Exped., vol. i. p. L7E.

—— campestris, Licht. Verz. der Doubl., e/a

Pelidna pectoralis, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and. N. Amer., p. 50.

——— maculata, Bonap. Tabl. des Echass., Compt. Rend. del’ Acad. Sci., tom. xliii, séances des 15 et 22 Sept. 1856
Tringa (Actodromas) maculata, Baird, Cat. of N. Amer. Birds in Mus. Smiths. Inst. p- xlvii. no ist. ee be
Limnocinclus pectoralis, Gould, Handb. Birds of Aust., vol. ii. p. 254. aos on

 

I nore my fellow-labourers in the field of ornithological science will coincide with me in retaining Say’s
specific name of pectoralis for this species of Sandpiper, in
maculatus assigned to it by Vieillot—more especially as it is commonly known, both in its native country
2) "7 ‘ c , i

. ° AL eed fe
(America) and in England, by the trivial name of Pectoral Sandpiper.

, , In the second volume of my
‘Handbook to the Birds of Australia,’ I have instituted the genus Limnocin ’

7 Mme cclde Th: : ; clus for the reception of this
species and the old Zringa acuminata of Horsfie ‘tter known as the 7 aysfroje of : :
| : | 2 eld, better known as the 7. australis of Jardine and Selby, a
bird which so nearly resembles the Pectoral Sandpiper in its winter plumage that it is only by the
sy ‘ oO eve » . “10 IY ve » Pees Bs < : . ° . 2
discriminating eye of the prmthologixt they can be distinguished the one from the other; in the summer
plumage, however, they are very different.
Although several examples of the Z. pectoralis have been killed in the British Islands, they can only be
regarded as accidental visitors, individuals which have strayed over to this country, probably from America
e 4 . ay
where it ranges far and wide, from the tropics, through Mexico, Texas, and the United States, to Hudson’s
Bay; the Rev. H. B. Tristram has also killed it in Bermuda. The recorded notices of the Pectoral
Sandpiper are, unfortunately, of no great interest ; but such as they are they will be found below: in the
meanwhile I would observe that I have at this moment before me several specimens in their full nuptial dress
ss,
and that there is another, finer still, in the collection at the British Museum. In this state I notice that the

breast-feathers are much more lengthened than in winter, and have the spots with which they are adorned

more sharply defined. These feathers the bird doubtless puffs out when endeavouring to attract the notice of

the females ; indeed we have reason to believe that the entire chest is then distended, after the manner of

the Bustard and the domestic Pouter Pigeon, Mr. G. R. Gray having laid before the ineeting of the
Zoological Society of London, held on the 22nd of March, 1859, a drawing of this species made by the late
Mr. Adams, Surgeon of H.M.S. ‘Enterprise,’ representing the bird thus inflated, and remarked hit, from
the correctness of the other drawings made by the same gentleman, he had no doubt he had observed this
singular phenomenon in the specimen from which the drawing was taken. ‘The drawing was more
especially placed before the Members in the hopes of learning whether such a singularity of habits had been
noticed before in this or any other of the Zring@.” In winter the spots on the breast are not seen, their
place being occupied by longitudinal striz.

From a paper by the late J. D. Hoy, published in the ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ new series, vol. i.
p- 115, we learn that the first occurrence of the Pectoral Sandpiper in England was “ noticed, and a plate
given, by Eyton in his Continuation of Bewick’s ‘ Birds.’ It was killed on the 17th of October, 1830, on
the borders of Breydon Broad, an extensive sheet of water near Yarmouth, rather celebrated for the
numerous rare birds which have, at different times, been observed and shot on its banks and waters. The
person who killed it remarked that it was solitary, and its note was new to him, which induced him to shoot
it. It proved, on dissection, to be a female.” Dr. Edward Clarke informed Mr. Yarrell that another had
been shot very near Hartlepool, in October 1841.

In a note from Mr. H. Stevenson, of Norwich, dated January 29, 1868, that gentleman says :—‘‘ I send you
the dates of Mr. Gurney’s and my Pectoral Sandpipers, as you requested. Mr. Gurney’s was shot near
Yarmouth, on the 30th of September, 1853 ; he had an opportunity of examining it in the flesh, and on dissection
it proved to be a female and apparently a bird of the year; it was not fat, but in very fair condition, Its
stomach contained some small seeds and the remains of a few insects, too much mutilated to be
recognizable. Mine was shot at Caistor, near Yarmouth, on the 16th of September, 1865. It was brought
in the flesh to one of our bird-stuffers, from whom I purchased it.” Only last week, Dr. Lowe, of Lynn, sent
me, to examine, not knowing what it was, another Pectoral Sandpiper, which had been netted in Terrington
Marsh ; it is now in the Lynn Museum. ‘This also was a female and a young bird of the last year ; the spots
on the breast were very small, none of them transverse; a few new feathers, with rufous edgings, were

making their appearance. This is the fourth authenticated Norfolk specimen.

lieu of the prior but inappropriate one of

 

 

 

 

 

 

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