During the breeding season it “drums” in the same manner as the Common Snipe, the noise having been compared to the cantering of a horse on a hard road. The eggs are similar in colour and only very slightly smaller than those of the Common Snipe.
It may be recognised by its short bill and smaller size, and from its having only twelve instead of fourteen tail feathers. Length 7·5 in.; bill 1·5 in.; wing 4·25 in.
THE BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER
Limicola platyrhyncha (Temminck)
This species, although it may sometimes have been overlooked, is a very scarce wanderer to our shores. Nesting on the tundras of North Europe, it migrates eastward in winter to the shores of the Levant.
Its general appearance in winter is much like the Dunlin, but its somewhat flattened bill and the small amount of white on the secondaries and upper tail coverts form distinctive characteristics. Length 6·5 in.; bill 1·2 in.; wing 4·25 in.
THE AMERICAN PECTORAL SANDPIPER
Tringa maculata, Vieillot
The American Pectoral Sandpiper has occurred more frequently in Great Britain than any other of the American Sandpipers, some thirty or forty examples having been shot, and with two exceptions they have all occurred during the winter months.
Its breeding range is in Arctic America, whence it migrates to the tropics of America for the winter, and presumably those examples that visit us have come via Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroes.
The upper parts are brown, with lighter margins to the feathers; chin and throat whitish; breast buff, streaked with brown. Length 8 in.; bill 1·1 in.; wing 5·3 in.