Calidris melanotos
Order Charadriiformes
Family Scolopacidae
Subfamily Arenariinae
Other names: Grass bird, Krieker
Adult in spring.— Upper parts gray tinged with rusty and speckled with brownish-black; rump and base of tail brownish-black, tipped with reddish-buff; central tail-feathers dark, outer ones lighter; sides of neck, and breast pale buff, streaked with dusky; rest of under parts white.
Adult in fall.— Similar, but the rusty tinge on the upper parts wanting.
Immature.— Feathers of upper back tipped with white; breast more buffy.
The Pectoral Sandpiper, the Grass Bird or Krieker of the sportsmen, is a migrant in spring and fall, generally not uncommon, and occasionally abundant. It passes north in April and May, and returns from the end of July to October. It is strictly a bird of the grassy marshes, rarely appearing on the mud-flats or sand-bars. After a flock lights, the birds generally scatter over the marsh, and when approached crouch on the ground like snipe, till one is almost on them. When they fly, they utter a sharp krickkrick. The male is considerably larger than the female; both look like a large edition of the Least Sandpiper.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)