Family SCOLOPACIDAE, Snipes and Sandpipers (continued 7)

I could not understand why all the young had not risen at once in answer to the parent's call, but I noticed that he had in each case gone up to within less than two feet of the one in hiding, and then with lowered head facing the chick, gave the call note. In each case it was the youngster thus directly addressed that responded to the signal and arose. The note of the young was a low rusty squeak, scarcely audible to human ears. It was very similar to the note of the young semipalmated sandpiper. As far as my observations went, there was no attempt on the part of the parent to feed the young, and it is my belief that from the time they are hatched the young spoonbills hunt their own food. The exercise thus gained was found in the case of young semipalmated sandpipers to be essential to the health of the chicks. In addition to keeping warm by running about the young spoonbills are hovered and warmed at regular intervals by the parent. The brood mentioned above had survived a fairly severe snowstorm on the preceding day.

Plumages.—The most remarkable thing about the downy young spoonbill sandpiper is the well developed spoon-shaped bill, even when first hatched. As will be seen by referring to Colonel Thayer's (1911) excellent colored plate, this is much shorter than the adult bill and the spatulate tip is more oval. The crown, back, rump, wings, and thighs are variegated with black, white, "ochraceous tawny" and paler buffs, dotted with white terminal tufts on the head, which form two white stripes from the eyes to the nape, and dotted with both white and buff tufts on the back and rump; the forehead, a superciliary stripe, the sides of the head, the throat, and the neck are "warm buff"; the rest of the under parts are white; a median frontal stripe, a loral stripe, and a malar spot are black.

The juvenal plumage I have never seen. Birds collected on the southward migration are apparently all in winter plumages; young birds are distinguishable from adults at this age. For descriptions of first winter and subsequent plumages I would refer the reader to Ridgway's Birds of North and Middle America. I have not studied sufficient material to work out the seasonal molts, but they are apparently similar to those of other small sandpipers of the genus Pisobia.

Food.—The food of the spoonbill sandpiper seems not to have been definitely determined, but Mr. Dixon (1918) watched a pair feeding, of which he says:

Our observations disclosed no peculiar advantage attending the singular shape of this sandpiper's bill, though careful watch was kept to see just how this member was used. On July 17, 1913, a pair of spoonbilled sandpipers was watched for half an hour as the two birds fed within 50 feet of the observer, concealed behind a sandy dune. Their favorite feeding ground was a fresh-water pond with a fringe of green algae about the sandy border. Under these conditions the birds used their bills, as any other sandpipers would, as probes to pick out insects or larvae from the algae. Occasionally one would hesitate a moment, when the vascular tip of the mandible quivered slightly as though the bird were straining something out of the green algae. At this time the bill was held at nearly right angles to the surface of the water; it was never used as a scoop along the surface.

Behavior.—I must again quote from Mr. Dixon (1918), who has furnished most of our information about this little known species. Referring to behavior and recognition marks he writes:

In color, size, and actions the spoonbilled sandpiper closely resembles the Eastern least stint (Pisobia minuta ruficollis), the marked similarity between them resulting in both the author and his fellow collector W. S. Brooks, failing to distinguish between the two species until June 20, after we had been among them for some days. Although the spatulate tip of this bird's bill is very noticeable when viewed from directly above or below, it is not a character which can be advantageously used to identify the species in the field, for the simple reason that in nearly all close views of the living bird only lateral or frontal aspects of the bill are obtained. Even when a bird was feeding, and the bill was observed under the most favorable conditions, the peculiar shape was not nearly as conspicuous as one would expect. In the author's experience, the most reliable method of identifying the bird in the field was by noting the glint of light that was reflected from the broad tip of the upper mandible when the sunlight struck the bill at a certain angle. Even in flight the bird could often be identified by this faint beam of reflected light. We found that the sandpiper had a decided preference for the grassy margins of fresh-water ponds, while single birds were frequently found feeding along the algae-bordered rims of tundra pools. Sandy lagoons where rivers entered the bay were favored by them as well.

Fall.—The same writer outlines the fall migration, based on birds in the British Museum, as follows:

An adult male, still in summer plumage, was taken August 8, at the mouth of the Amur River in southwestern Russia. An immature was secured on October 8 at Hakodadi (Hakodate), Japan, while an adult female was collected at Rangoon, India, on December 1.

Winter.—In their winter home in India, according to Doctor Nelson (1887) "these birds frequent the muddy flats at the mouths of rivers, sand bars, and the seashore, where, with the various species of Tringa, they always find an abundant harvest of food deposited by the receding tide."

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Eastern Siberia, south in winter to southern China and India; casual in Alaska.

Breeding range.—The spoonbilled sandpiper has been found breeding only along the Arctic coast of northeast Siberia (Cape Wankarem, Pithkaj, Cape Serdze, near Koliuchin Island, and Providence Bay).

Winter range.—The winter range of this species appears to be mainly on the coasts of India (Rangoon, Akyab, Tenasserim, and the Arakan coast).

Migration.—Specimens have been collected at Shanghai, China, in April and it seems to arrive on its breeding grounds early in June (Emma Harbor, Siberia, June 6). An early date of fall arrival is indicated by a specimen from the mouth of the Amur River, southwestern Russia, taken on August 8, while a late date of fall departure is October 8, at Hakodadi, Japan.

Casual records.—A specimen of this sandpiper has been reported as taken on the Choris Peninsula, Alaska, in 1849 (Harting, 1871), but subsequent investigation (Dixon, 1918) indicates that the bird was probably taken on the Siberian side of Bering Strait. Two specimens were, however, taken near Wainwright Inlet, on August 15, 1914 (Dixon, 1918).

Egg dates.—Siberia: 2 records, June 22 and July 15.

EREUNETES PUSILLUS (Linnaeus) SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER

HABITS

Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend

This little sandy colored sandpiper, appropriately called the "sand peep," seems most at home on the sea beaches, but it also frequents the sand flats of tidal estuaries, and to a less extent, the salt marshes, and is even found on the shores of inland lakes during the migrations.

Courtship.—Although I have never seen this bird on its northern breeding grounds, I have been so fortunate as to have heard many times the courtship song during the migrations on the New England coast, and to have witnessed some, at least, of its posturing on the ground. This sandpiper is more of a musician than the least, and his song is well worth hearing. I can but repeat what I have already published on the subject (1905):

Rising on quivering wings to about 30 feet from the ground, the bird advances with rapid wing beats, curving the pinions strongly downward, pouring forth a succession of musical notes—a continuous quavering trill—and ending with a few very sweet notes that recall those of a goldfinch. He then descends to the ground where one may be lucky enough, if near at hand, to hear a low musical cluck from the excited bird. This is, I suppose, the full love flight song, and is not often heard in its entirety, but the first quavering trill is not uncommon, a single bird or member of a flock singing this as he flies over.

Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1900) writes as follows of this species at Cape Blossom, Alaska, in July:

A few were to be found in the Interior on damp, grassy flats, but the strip of low meadow bordering the lagoon back of the mission was by far the most popular resort. Here the grass was short and smooth as a lawn, with occasional narrow branches from the main slough cutting their way back toward the higher ground. In one part of this stretch of tide flats the sandpipers were so numerous that as many as a dozen pairs were in sight at once, and their twittering notes were to be heard on all sides. They were flying back and forth over the meadows chasing one another, with shrill, rolling notes uttered so continuously as to become almost inaudible from their monotony. At times in an individual case this trilling would become so intensified as to remind one of the shrill notes of the white throated swift.

Joseph Dixon (1917a), writing of a bird that sang at an elevation of about 50 feet above the nest says: "His song seemed to come from every direction, and this illusion was difficult to account for even by the unusual location of the songster." Whether the whinny heard from birds, many of which are posturing on the sand is a modification of the nuptial song or rather a partial reproduction of it, I do not know, but I am inclined to think it is. Many of these musicians appear on close scrutiny to be young birds, which would explain the imperfection of the song. The posturing is often in the nature of mock fighting—I have never seen any real blows exchanged—when two, facing each other, crouch almost flat on the sand, and then suddenly spring at each other with wings outspread. Again, two would slowly walk toward each other with neck and body almost touching the ground and with head up. This act is often performed with tail cocked up over the back, displaying a white triangle of tail coverts, and every now and then the birds would run at each other with outspread wings. All birds acting thus appeared to be uttering a series of rolling notes, which, emitted from a number of birds scattered over the flats, produces a considerable volume of sound. I have described this partial song as a whinny, and have tried to reduce it to syllables—eh, eh, eh, or what-er, what-er.

Lucien M. Turner in his Ungava notes records two individuals that "ran back and forth, uttering a purring twitter, holding their wings over their back with the head and neck depressed, while the posterior portion of the body was somewhat elevated. The throat was at times inflated and at other times every feather of the body was nearly reversed, presenting a strange sight."

Herbert W. Brandt supplies the following from observations in Alaska:

The semipalmated sandpiper flies high into the air, often almost out of sight, and pours forth a sustained tinkling song, which sounds like its native name uttered as a high-pitched trill—"la-v-la-v-la-v." As it sings it rapidly fans the air with short wing beats, at the same time moving at considerable speed continuously back and forth over a distance of 50 yards or more. Four of the birds which I took to be males were rather noisy, twittering, and purling, and occasionally one of them rushed at another as if he seriously intended to wage mortal combat. The feathers on his dainty neck stood out in an angered ruff; his wings were half spread, showing their light markings; and when the little warrior was just about to strike he folded his wings and elevated his tail until it was almost vertical above his long wing tips. There was, however, no real fight, for each one seemed to know his superior and gave way, after a little display, like a weaker rooster in a well-regulated barnyard.

Nesting.—H. W. Brandt contributes the following:

The semipalmated sandpiper nests amid the short herbage on the grassy dunes near the moaning breakers of Point Dall, where it selects a site quite exposed to view. Among the creeping berry vines the bird simply scratches a depression in the sand, and this it lines with a few disconnected grass stems, stiff moss stems, and a handful of tiny, crisp-dried leaves of the cranberry, willow, or dwarf birch. The range of measurements of five nests is: Inside diameter, 2 to 2½ inches; inside depth, 1½ to 2 inches; total depth, 2½ to 3¹/4 inches. The nest is very fragile and breaks up at once if disturbed. Like all shore birds that nest in the open, the brooding bird is anything but a close sitter, and in consequence the nest must be found by diligent search. An incubating female was collected as it departed from the nest.

Roderick Macfarlane, who found many nests of this species in the Barren Grounds, describes two of them as follows:

Nest was found between two small lakes—a few withered grasses and leaves in a shallow hole or depression, partly shaded from view by a tuft of grass. The nest was a mere depression in the midst of some hay and lined therewith, as well as with a few withered leaves.

Winthrop Sprague Brooks (1915) relates his experience in Alaska as follows:

Thirteen nests were found, the first, a set of three fresh eggs, being taken on June 12. All the nests were essentially alike—mere cavities in damp tundra close to a pool, and lined with dry willow leaves. On seven nests the female was found, and the male on six. Although the male seems to take about an equal share in brooding on the eggs and taking care of the young, I could not see that he did this at any particular time, for I could find either sex on the nest at midnight or midday. Neither sex showed any more concern than the other when an intruder was at the nest. In most cases the bird disturbed would flutter along a few yards and then remain walking quietly and watching. On one occasion a female made a great disturbance. Semipalmated sandpipers on the breeding ground are the most gentle and interesting birds of the North.

Eggs.—[Author's note: Four eggs seems to be the invariable rule with the semipalmated sandpiper. They are usually ovate pyriform in shape with a tendency to become subpyriform. The shell is somewhat glossy. The eggs can not with certainty be distinguished from those of the least sandpiper on one hand or the western sandpiper on the other hand; the measurements overlap with both and the colors and markings intergrade with both. I have 11 sets of semipalmated, and I can match nearly every one of them with sets from my series of the other two species. In series, however, they much more closely resemble the least sandpiper.

Herbert W. Brandt has sent me a description of his sets taken in Alaska, which are probably of the normal type, as follows:

In the six sets before me the ground color is uniformly dull white and is conspicuous. The markings are bold and individual, with most of them round instead of elongate, although there is a slight spiral tendency. These spots are dark, ranging from "claret brown" to "burnt lake," producing a deep red effect when examined in series. The underlying spots are numerous and rather conspicuous, due to the whitish ground color. They shade from "light Quaker drab" to "Quaker drab."

Less than half of my sets, all from Alaska, would fit his description; the ground colors in most of mine vary from "pale olive buff" to "olive buff"; in some it is "deep olive buff," and in one "Isabella color." The colors of the markings run from "liver brown" to "chestnut brown" in the darkest and from "hazel" to "cinnamon brown" in the lightest. There are comparatively few underlying drab markings. The eggs show the same variations in shape and arrangement of markings as eggs of the least sandpiper. I have two sets from Point Barrow, taken with the parent bird, which are almost exactly like eggs of the western sandpiper in color and style of markings but smaller, and several other sets approaching them in appearance. There are 10 sets of eggs in the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge collected by W. Sprague Brooks near Demarcation Point, Alaska, with the parent bird in each case. Three of these are of the western sandpiper type, and three others are similarly marked with different shades of brown. The measurements of 52 eggs average 30.2 by 21.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 32 by 21, 30 by 22, 27.7 by 21.3, and 31.5 by 20 millimeters.]

Young.—According to Mr. Dixon (1917a), incubation lasts 17 days. It is performed equally by the male and female, as is shown by Mr. Brooks's very conclusive report quoted above. Mr. Dixon (1917a), writing of birds observed in Alaska says the young so exactly match the surroundings that they are invisible at 3 feet. He relates the case of a snowy owl that sailed from its perch in the direction of a brood of young which flattened and froze obedient to the alarm cry of the mother. The owl poised directly over them, but evidently failed to see them and flew away. On another occasion two parasitic jaegers flew by; the young flattened, and all escaped but one that began to move before the second jaeger had passed and was promptly snapped up.

He says:

It was found that the parents made no effort to feed the young. It was soon seen, however, that such care was not necessary. The young would stumble about and pick up minute gnats and flies with great dexterity, and the shallow algae-rimmed pools furnished them many a juicy "wriggler." The gait of the young sandpipers was a stumbling toddle, while their large feet and legs were all out of proportion to the rest of their slender bodies. By dropping and extending their wings they were able to use them as crutches, which often kept them from falling.

In about a month they were fully fledged, and a week later the sandpipers were leaving for the south.

Plumages.—[Author's note: In natal down the young semipalmated most closely resembles the young western sandpiper, but it is generally paler, with less brown or rufous. The forehead, sides of the head, and all under parts are white, faintly washed on the cheeks and upper breast with pale buff; a median stripe on the forehead, reaching only halfway to the bill, a broad loral stripe, and a malar spot are black; there is a black spot in the center of the crown, broken by a few very small white dots, surrounded by "hazel" and bordered with black; a short stripe over the eye and an auricular patch are black and "hazel" mixed; between these and the crown patch there is a broad band of white dots, terminal tufts; the back, rump, wings, and thighs are variegated "hazel" and black, with numerous small white dots, terminal tufts. The bill is broad at the tip.

Young birds are in juvenal plumage when they reach the United States on the fall migration. They can be distinguished from adults by the buffy edgings above and by the absence of dusky streaks on the throat and upper breast. The feathers of the crown are edged with sandy buff and those of the back and scapulars with "ochraceous buff" or creamy white; the wing coverts are edged with pale buff; the upper breast is washed with buff and the rest of the under parts are white. This plumage is partially molted during September and October, producing a first winter plumage, which is like the adult winter plumage, except for the juvenal wing coverts, some scapulars, and a few body feathers, which are retained. At the first prenuptial molt, the next spring, young birds become practically adult.

Adults have a complete molt from July to November, the body plumage being molted first and the wings last, the latter sometimes not until winter. Their partial prenuptial molt involves the body plumage, sometimes the tail and some wing coverts; it begins in February and lasts into May. The freshly molted spring plumage, in early May, has a "drab-gray" appearance, due to broad drab-gray tips on the feathers of the mantle; these tips soon wear away, revealing the bright colors of the nuptial plumage before the end of May.]

Food.—I have recorded the following found by me in the stomachs of this species taken on the New England coast; insects of various kinds, including beetles, small mollusks (Littorina), worms and crustaceans (Gammarus orchestia), bits of seaweed and sand. Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1916) records the contents of six stomachs from birds taken in Porto Rico in August; 99.16 per cent was animal matter, 0.84 per cent vegetable matter.

Beetles, bugs, fly pupae, and small mollusks form the bulk of the food. Small water scavenger beetles (Hydrophilidae) were found in four stomachs and amount to 27 per cent. Two ground beetles (Bembidium sp.) amount to 5 per cent and miscellaneous beetles to 3.34 per cent. One bird had eaten nothing but four back swimmers (Notonecta sp.), and these made 16.66 per cent. Fly pupae figure largely in two stomachs, forming 21.66 per cent of the total, and snails (Planorbis sp.) 13 per cent, while miscellaneous animal matter amounts to 12.50 per cent. The small quantity of vegetable matter present was rubbish. The numbers of Diptera eaten speak well for this sandpiper.

Preble and McAtee (1923) found in the stomach of a bird shot in the Pribilof Islands "remains of the beach beetle (Aegialites californicus), 10 per cent; fragments of small flies (Diptera), 85 per cent; and two seeds (not identified), 5 per cent."

Arthur H. Howell (1924) says, "Two stomachs of these birds from Alabama contained the remains of small mollusks, fly larvae and beetles. This species is known to feed on marine worms and mosquitoes."

Behavior.—Semipalmated sandpipers are fascinating birds to watch. When feeding on the beaches, they run along in a scattered flock just above the wave line, retreating rapidly as the wave advances, but sometimes being forced to flutter above it, all the time eagerly seeking for choice morsels. With head down, not held up as is the case with its companions the semipalmated plovers, it runs along dabbling here and there irregularly, and occasionally probing with its bill in the sand. These probings are not so deep nor so systematic as those of the sanderling, which makes a series of six to a dozen holes in succession throwing up the sand on either side. In its greediness the semipalmated sandpiper sometimes attempts to swallow too large a morsel for its small round mouth, which is much out of proportion to the stretch of the end of the bill, and many shakings of the head are needed to get a large morsel past the sticking point. I have seen one try several times to swallow a large beach flea (Talorchestia megalophthalma), and then fly off with it in its bill.

On a rocky shore I have seen them hunting for insects at high tide on the smooth rocks, and at low tide, running among the rocks covered with seaweed (Fucus vesiculsus) and on the floating weed, fluttering their wings from time to time to keep from sinking. Here they find plenty of food in the small mollusks and crustaceans, Littorina and Gammarus. On an August day on the coast of Maine I saw one searching about on floating rockweed several miles from land. Shore birds doubtless often rest in this way in their long journeys over sea.

In flight, semipalmated sandpipers in flocks, large and small, often move as one bird, twisting and turning with military precision, alternately displaying their light breasts and darker backs—flashing white and then almost disappearing. The method which enables shore birds, or, indeed, any flocking bird, to accomplish these evolutions is obscure. In the case of the semipalmated sandpiper these evolutions appear often to be made in silence, although it is of course possible that signals, not audible to the human observer, may be given. It has been suggested that telepathy or even that "a common soul" dominating the flock may be the interpretation, but both of these explanations are at present, at least, outside of scientific ken. I have noticed that birds who do not habitually execute evolutions, like English sparrows and the young of those that are skillful in this direction when adult, as for example, starlings, are much less proficient at this, and it seems to me possible that the whole thing may be accounted for by quickness of observation and of reaction, inherited and acquired.

Semipalmated sandpipers like other shore birds often stand on one leg and even hop along on it in feeding and they also sleep in this attitude. It is difficult to distinguish these from cripples, and one is easily deceived; the cripples seem as happy and tireless in feeding as the others.

William Brewster (1925) thus charmingly describes the habits of this bird in the wet and soft ground at Lake Umbagog:

Here they trot to and fro, almost as actively and ceaselessly as so many ants, picking up the inconspicuous worms or larvae from the surface of the ground and seeking them beneath it by thrusting down their sensitive bills quite to the nostrils, after the manner of boring snipe, but less quickly, vigorously, and persistently. They are also given to wading out into shallow water where they pull up good sized masses of aquatic plants, such as Utricularia. By shaking and piercing these with their bills they evidently obtain from them food of some kind, perhaps insect larvae or small Crustacea.

At high tide on the beaches, when the wet sand with its bountiful food supply is covered, great flocks of this species, together with the least sandpiper, the sanderling, and the semipalmated plover, often spend an hour or more huddled together on the dry sand. Each species keeps more or less separate. The birds generally face the wind, but sometimes they arrange themselves in the lee of bits of driftwood or other obstructions, and "tail out" down wind in long streamers as it were, each sheltered by the one next to windward. They sleep standing on one or both legs with the bill tucked under the feathers of the back—not "under the wing" as in poems—or they squat down, resting their breasts on the sand. They occasionally seem to yawn by stretching one wing over a leg. They also spread both wings above the back as do many other shore birds, and they flirt the bill nervously from side to side, to relieve their ennui, perhaps shaking the head at the same time.

Voice.—The varied courtship songs and notes have been described above. Their call note, to my ears, is very much like that of the least sandpiper, but shriller and less melodious. A harsh rasping note and a peeping sound are also given and a low, rolling gossipy note is often emitted when they approach other birds or decoys, a note that used to be imitated with deadly effect by gunners. John T. Nichols (1920) says:

The flight note of the semipalmated sandpiper is a rather loud "cherk," softer and less reedy than the analogous krieker "kerr." It is commonly modified to a softer "cher" or "che," which with much variation becomes the conversational twittering of members of a feeding flock. Soft short, snappy "chips" are characteristic of flocks maneuvering about decoys * * * Hurried cheeping notes ("ki-i-ip") on being flushed, are suggestive of the same note of the krieker.

Field marks.—These have been discussed at length under least sandpiper to which the reader is referred, but may be summed up here as follows: a little larger than the least sandpiper, grayer, bill stouter and straight, tarsi and feet black, semipalmated. The young can be distinguished from the old in the field by their nearly white breasts washed with a smoky tint. In the hand their tarsi are seen to be black with a slight greenish hue.

Game.—The fact that so many of these birds could be easily killed at one shot, and the fact that they were so fat and palatable broiled or cooked in a pie, made them always much sought after by the pot hunter. As large shore birds grew scarcer and it became more and more difficult for the gunner to fill his bag with them, "peep" shooting, even by sportsmen, was in vogue. The Federal law has now wisely removed this species from the list of game birds and prevented its extinction. The bird has responded to this protection in a marked degree, and flocks of 500 or more are common and pleasing sights on our beaches where one-tenth of this number was once rare.

The shooting of semipalmated sandpipers occurred largely on the beaches. The gunner dug a hole in the sand, banked it up, and put brush and driftwood, often reinforced with seaweed, on the ramparts. At a convenient distance decoys of wood or tin were placed, arranged like a flock of birds with their heads pointing to the wind. Occasionally large clamshells were stuck in the sand, simulating very well a flock of peep. Much depended on the skill of the gunner in calling down the birds as they flew along, by cunningly imitating their notes and by his care in keeping concealed and motionless until the moment that he delivered his fire. To bring down a score of birds from a closely packed flock required but little skill, where, to pick off a single peep, flying erratically and swiftly by, called for well-seasoned judgment; but the chances for these birds were small indeed when the beaches were lined with inviting decoys and concealed whistling gunners.

Fall.—On the New England coast the semipalmated sandpiper is a little later in migration than its colleague, the least sandpiper. July 10 to October 30 are the usual dates, but few are seen after September 20. The adults come first, but after the middle of August the young appear, to be distinguished by their nearly white breasts washed with a smoky tint, and by their more unsuspecting ways.

The extraordinary abundance of this species at certain times on migration is well illustrated by what Stuart T. Danforth (1925) says of it in Porto Rico. He writes:

The semipalmated sandpiper is by far the most abundant shore bird at Cartagena Lagoon, though it occurs only as a fall migrant. I have records from August 13 to October 20, 1924. During the latter part of August they are present in almost unbelievable numbers. I hardly dare estimate their numbers, but on August 26, when they were at the height of their abundance, I am sure that 100,000 would have been a low estimate of their numbers. They simply swarmed over the mud flats. On this date, although I was trying to avoid shooting them, I got 16 while shooting other birds. They were so abundant that stray shots could not help killing numbers of them. On other days many were also unintentionally shot in the same manner. In fact, all but 4 of the 36 that I collected were shot in this way. This species prefers the mud flats, but when they were so excessively abundant some were forced to feed in the sedge and grass associations, and when the fall rains came a little later practically all of them were forced to the sedges and grasses and even to the cane fields. But within a few days after this most of them left for parts unknown.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—North America, South America, the West Indies, and northeastern Siberia; accidental in Europe.

Breeding range.—The semipalmated sandpiper breeds north to the northeastern coast of Siberia (Plover Bay); Alaska (Point Hope, Point Barrow, Barter Island, Camden Bay, and Demarcation Point); Yukon (probably Herschel Island); Mackenzie (Franklin Bay), Victoria Land; northern Keewatin (Cape Fullerton); Labrador (Okak); and Newfoundland. East to Labrador (Okak). South to Labrador (Okak); Newfoundland; northern Quebec (Fort George); southern Keewatin (Severn River); probably eastern Manitoba (York Factory and Fort Churchill); Mackenzie (Fort Anderson); and Alaska (Pastolik). West to Alaska (Pastolik, Hooper Bay, St. Michael, probably Nome, Port Clarence, Kowak River, probably Cape Blossom, and Point Hope); and northeastern Siberia (Plover Bay).

Winter range.—North to Sonora (Hermosillo); Texas (Fort Brown, Corpus Christi, and Refugio County); Louisiana (State Game Preserve, Marsh Island, False River, and Hog Bayou); and South Carolina (Bulls Point). East to South Carolina (Bulls Point, Sea Islands, Frogmore, and Port Royal); Georgia (Chatham County, Blackbeard Island, Darien, and St. Marys); Florida (Mosquito Inlet and St. Lucie); Bahama Islands (Great Inagua); Haiti (Monte Christi and Sanchez); Porto Rico; Lesser Antilles (Antigua, Barbados, Carriacou, Grenada, and Trinidad); French Guiana (Cayenne); and Brazil (Island Mexiana, Island Cajetuba, and Bahia). South to Brazil (Bahia); rarely Patagonia (Nuevo Gulf); and Peru (Parecas Bay). West to Peru (Parecas Bay); Colombia (Cartagena and Sabanillo); Guatemala (San Jose); Valley of Mexico; Sinaloa (Mazatlan); and Sonora (Hermosillo).

Spring migration.—Early dates of arrival in the spring are: North Carolina, Highlands, April 12, and Raleigh, April 13; Virginia, Cobb Island, May 14, and Smiths Island, May 16; District of Columbia, Washington, May 10; Pennsylvania, Grove City, May 3, and Milford, May 9; New Jersey, Elizabeth, May 6; New York, Orient, April 16, Canandaigua, April 26, Geneva, May 5, and Rochester, May 7; Connecticut, Saybrook, May 9, and Norwalk, May 11; Massachusetts, Monomoy Island, April 22, Ipswich, April 24; Maine, Lewiston, May 6; Quebec, May 2; Missouri, Appleton City, April 3, and Boonville, April 16; Illinois, Springfield, April 25, Quincy, May 3; Indiana, Camden, April 18, Bicknell, April 24, and Bloomington, April 26; Ohio, Lakeside, May 3, New Bremen, May 5, and Oberlin, May 7; Michigan, Ann Arbor, April 1; Ontario, Toronto, May 14, and Ottawa, May 14; Iowa, Keokuk, April 19, Emmetsburg, April 27, and Sioux City, May 2; Wisconsin, Elkhorn, May 1, and Madison, May 7; Minnesota, Wilder, April 19, Jackson, April 24, and Hallock, May 9; Kansas, McPherson, April 15, Lawrence, May 5, and Emporia, May 9; Nebraska, Neligh, April 30, Omaha, May 4, and Lincoln, May 5; South Dakota, Sioux Falls, May 5, and Harrison, May 8; Manitoba, Gimli, May 10, and Shoal Lake, May 19; Saskatchewan, Dinsmore, May 13, and Indian Head, May 19; and Mackenzie, Fort Chipewyan, May 24, and Fort Simpson, May 26.

Late dates of spring departure are: Cuba, Guantanamo, May 8, and Mariel, May 10; the Bahama Islands, Hog Island, April 27, Salt Key, May 5, and Inagua, May 27; Florida, Whitfield, May 11, Fort De Soto, May 25, and St. Marks, May 26; Georgia, Savannah, May 22; South Carolina, Ladys Island, May 26; North Carolina, Fort Macon, May 17, Cape Hatteras, May 20, and Raleigh, May 22; Virginia, Smiths Island, May 22, and Cape Charles, May 27; District of Columbia, Washington, May 22; Pennsylvania, Warren, May 24, and Erie, June 4; New Jersey, Camden, May 25, Long Beach, June 1, and Elizabeth, June 18; New York, Rochester, June 2, Syracuse, June 4, Poughkeepsie, June 5, Geneva, June 8, and New York City, June 15; Connecticut, Norwalk, May 30, and Fairfield, June 9; Rhode Island, Sakonnet Point, June 4; Massachusetts, Dennis, May 30, Lynn, June 2, and Harvard, June 9; Maine, Portland, June 3; Louisiana, Lobdell, May 28; Missouri, Boonville, May 31; Illinois, Oak Park, May 26, Shawneetown, May 27, and Chicago, June 13; Ohio, Oberlin, June 1, Port Clinton, June 3, and Lakeside, June 10; Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie, May 31, and Detroit, June 2; Ontario, Toronto, June 2, Hamilton, June 5, and Todmorden, June 13; Iowa, Clear Lake, May 20, Mason City, May 27, and Sioux City, May 30; Wisconsin, Madison, May 31; Minnesota, Leech Lake, May 27, Minneapolis, June 1, and Lanesboro, June 3; Texas, Texas City, May 17, Point Isabel, May 19, and Gainesville, May 24; Kansas, Fort Riley, May 22, Republican Fork, May 25, Emporia, May 27, and Stafford County, June 6; Nebraska, Long Pine, May 25, Valentine, May 30, and Lincoln, June 8; South Dakota, Faulkton, May 27, Forestburg, June 2, and Harrison, June 3; Manitoba, May 31, Dominion City, June 1, and Shoal Lake, June 14; and Saskatchewan, Quill Lake, June 11, and Kutanajan Lake, June 13.

Fall migration.—Early dates of fall arrival are: British Columbia, Okanagan Landing, July 15, Atlin, July 16, and Courtenay, July 24; Colorado, Larimer County, July 18; Saskatchewan, Quill Lake, July 4, and Kiddleston, July 16; Manitoba, Russell, July 11, Red Deer River, July 23, and Shoal Lake, August 3; North Dakota, Mouse River, August 10; South Dakota, Forestburg, August 2; Kansas, Emporia, August 31; Texas, Brownsville, October 1, and Lake Worth, October 19; Minnesota, St. Vincent, July 24; Iowa, Sioux City, July 12, and Winnebago County, July 29; Ontario, Todmorden, July 21, and Amherstburg-Colchester, July 29; Michigan, Charity Island, July 9, and Detroit, July 22; Ohio, Columbus, July 12, Bay Point, July 16, and Painesville, July 19; Illinois, Chicago, July 2; Missouri, St. Louis, August 6; Mississippi, Biloxi, July 10, Beauvoir, July 18, and Bay St. Louis, July 21; Nova Scotia, Wolfville, July 10; Maine, Portland, July 23, and Pittsfield, July 24; Massachusetts, Monomoy Island, July 3, Marthas Vineyard, July 8, and Ipswich, July 10; Rhode Island, Newport, July 14, and Providence, July 22; Connecticut, Milford, July 28, and New Haven, July 30; New York, Orient, July 4, East Hampton, July 8, Freeport, July 12, and Rochester, July 12; New Jersey, Long Beach, July 7, and Cape May, July 14; Pennsylvania, Carlisle, July 27; District of Columbia, Washington, August 10; Virginia, Cobb Island, July 15; South Carolina, Frogmore, July 22; Florida, Palma Sola, July 8, Fernandina, July 14, Pensacola, July 16, and Fort De Soto, July 17; Cuba, Guantanamo, August 15, and Batabano, August 26; Porto Rico, Mona Island, August 11, and Cabo Rojo, August 24; and the Lesser Antilles, St. Croix, August 14, and Barbados, August 18.

Late dates of departure in the fall are: British Columbia, Lake Teslin, September 12, and Okanagan Landing, September 16; Saskatchewan, Ravine Bank, August 25; Manitoba, Winnipeg, September 13; Nebraska, Lincoln, October 30; Kansas, Topeka, September 15; Minnesota, Lanesboro, September 15; Wisconsin, Racine, October 1; Iowa, Marshalltown, October 12, and Burlington, October 15; Ontario, Ottawa, October 5, London, October 16, and Point Pelee, November 15; Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie, October 1, and Detroit, October 15; Ohio, Salem, October 9, Youngstown, October 26, and Dayton, November 16; Illinois, Chicago, October 9, and Cantine, October 17; Missouri, St. Louis, October 17; Prince Edward Island, North River, October 27; Nova Scotia, Wolfville, September 24; Quebec, Montreal, October 18; Maine, Lewiston, October 17; Massachusetts, Dennis, October 21, Boston, October 23, Harvard, October 24, and Lynn, October 25; Connecticut, Middleton, October 7, and New Haven, October 23; New York, Canandaigua, October 14, Sing Sing, October 20, New York City, October 24, Shinnecock Bay, October 30, and Ithaca, November 1; New Jersey, Morristown, September 24, Cape May, October 2, and Elizabeth, October 16; Pennsylvania, Beaver, October 3; and District of Columbia, Washington, October 26.

Casual records.—The semipalmated sandpiper is not common in Colorado and Utah, although in both of these States it has been taken on several occasions. Other casual records are Wyoming, Horse Creek, 1859, and Alkali Lake, October 31, 1897; Montana, Fort Keogh, May 15 and 16, 1889, Sweetgrass Hills, August 11, 1874, Billings, August 12, 1900, and Miles City, August 14 and 15, 1900; Washington, Blaine, August 4 to 8, 1900, Puget Sound, July 15, 1857, Shoalwater Bay, May 3, 1854, and Simiahmoo, May, 1858; and Pribilof Islands, St. Paul Island, June 12, 1890.

There also are at least three records for the British Isles: Romney Marsh, Kent, September, 1907, Marazion Marsh, Cornwall, October 10, 1853, and Northam Burrows, Devon, September, 1869.

Egg dates.—Arctic Canada: 70 records, June 12 to July 24; 35 records, July 3 to 6. Alaska: 33 records, June 2 to July 5; 17 records, June 6 to 18.

EREUNETES MAURI Cabanis WESTERN SANDPIPER

HABITS

Spring.—The western sandpiper has an unique distribution and peculiar migrations. It occupies a very restricted breeding range in the coastal regions of northwestern Alaska, but is spread out over a wide winter range, entirely across the continent in southern North America, in Central America, and in northern South America. But we know very little about its migration routes between these two seasonal ranges. I have not a single spring record for it from any of my correspondents in the interior. Undoubtedly it has been generally overlooked on account of its close resemblance to the semipalmated sandpiper, an abundant species which few collectors bother to shoot. Its northward migration along the Pacific coast, in April and May, is well known; this flight is mainly coastwise and the birds are often extremely abundant. D. E. Brown, in some notes sent to me from Westport, Washington, refers to this species as easily outnumbering all other shorebirds combined; they were associated with redbacks, but outnumbered them 10 to 1. Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says of the arrival of these birds in Alaska:

As the snow disappears on the low ground about Norton Sound; from the 10th to the 15th of May each year, and the ponds, still ice-covered, are bordered by a ring of water, these gentle birds arrive on the shore of Bering Sea, in the vicinity of Saint Michael and the Yukon mouth. The advancing season finds their numbers continually augmented until, toward the end of May, they are extremely common and are found scattered everywhere over the mossy flats and low hillsides. Their gentle character and trusting ways render them very attractive to the frequenter of their territory at this season.

Courtship.—The same gifted writer describes the courtship of this gentle little sandpiper as follows:

The warm days toward the end of May cause the brown slopes and flats to assume a shade of green, and among the pretty bird romances going on under our eyes none is more charming than the courtship of this delicate sandpiper. They have forsaken the borders of icy pools, and, in twos and threes, are found scattered over the tundra, showing a preference for small dry knolls and the drier tussock-covered parts of the country in the vicinity of damp spots and small ponds. Here the gentle birds may be seen at all times tripping daintily over the moss or in and out among the tufts of grass, conversing with each other in low, pleasant, twittering notes, and never showing any sign of the wrangling so frequent with their kind at this season. The female modestly avoids the male as he pays his homage, running back and forth before her as though anxious to exhibit his tiny form to the best advantage. At times his heart beats high with pride and he trails his wings, elevates and partly spreads his tail, and struts in front of his lady fair in all the pompous vanity of a pigmy turkey-cock; or his blood courses in a fiery stream until, filled with ecstatic joy, the sanguine lover springs from the earth, and, rising upon vibrating wings, some 10 or 15 yards, he poises, hovering in the same position, sometimes nearly a minute, while he pours forth a rapid, uniform series of rather musical trills, which vary in strength as they gradually rise and fall, producing pleasant cadences. The wings of the songster meanwhile vibrate with such rapid motion that they appear to keep time with the rapidly trilling notes, which can only be likened to the running down of a small spring and may be represented by the syllables tzr-r-e-e-e, zr-e-e-e-, zr-e-e-e, in a fine high-pitched tone, with an impetus at each "z." This part of the song ended, the bird raises its wings above its back, thus forming a V, and glides slowly to the ground, uttering at the same time, in a trill, but with a deeper and richer tone, a series of notes which may be likened to the syllables tzur-r-r-r, tzur-r-r-r. The word "throaty" may be applied to these latter notes as distinguished from the high-pitched key of the first part of the song.

Nesting.—Herbert W. Brandt, who has had extensive experience with the nesting habits of this species, says in his manuscript notes:

The gentle little western sandpiper is the most abundant and most widely distributed shore bird occurring in the Hooper Bay region. Throughout the area, wherever dry ground is found, it is plentiful, and it even occurs on the lower mountain slopes of the Askinuk Range. Before the tundra had discarded its snowy mantle the first birds of this species had responded to the lure of early spring, for they arrived on May 14, and two days later they were common, while on May 20 they were abundant, carrying on everywhere their dainty aerial butterfly courtship. The western sandpiper is usually found in large scattering colonies especially on the upland tundra where for large areas they average one or two pairs to the acre. Isolated couples, however, are occasionally encountered.

The nest of the western sandpiper is well concealed from view by the surrounding curly bunch-grass that everywhere in the dryer areas forces its way up amid the moss. Under this protection a depression is made and scantily lined with grass, and usually in addition with considerable tiny leaves of the prostrate berry-bearing vines, of the dwarf birch, and of the reindeer moss stems. In consequence, the nest is very fragile and loosely made, but before it is disturbed it is neatly cup-shaped. The range of measurements of 32 nests is: Inside diameter, 2 to 3 inches; depth of cavity, 1½ to 3 inches; and total depth, 2½ to 4 inches. Both male and female share in the tender duties of incubation and are often very loath to forsake their nest, so that when crossing their chosen haunts an incubating bird, by fluttering up before one's very feet, will occasionally unwittingly betray its well-concealed abode.

These charming little creatures are most brave, even eager in defense of their homes, often charging with puffed-out feathers and head drawn against the body to make themselves look as formidable as possible. Their tameness and familiarity are remarkable. Often after we had removed the eggs the parent would go to the empty nest, sit on it for a little while, then come out, her little body a-purr with agitation, and inquire in her thin incessant voice what had become of the eggs. It is little wonder that I shot very few specimens for identification purposes. This tiny sandpiper had won too deep a place in my affections.

The confiding nature of these birds is referred to by other writers. Doctor Nelson (1887) tells how one of his men lay on the ground with his outstretched hand close beside a nest; but the bird soon returned, crossed his arm and settled on the nest, where she was caught with turn of his hand and released. Alfred M. Bailey (1926) placed his "hat over one set of eggs, leaving just room for the parent bird to crawl under, which she immediately proceeded to do."

Eggs.—Herbert W. Brandt has given me the following good description of his 120 eggs of this species, collected by him at Hooper Bay, Alaska:

Four eggs always constitute a complete set with the western sandpiper, but occasionally late nests with three eggs in each were observed, which were probably second layings. They are pyriform to subpyriform in shape and are placed in the nest with the small ends together and pointed downward, snuggling amid the loose interior contents of the nest. The shell is smooth, has a slight luster, and is strongly constructed. The markings on the same set of eggs always follow the same type in color, and likewise the ground color is always the same shade. In the series of eggs the prevalent ground color is "cream color," but the shades vary from dull white, which is very rare, to equally rare "wood brown." The ground color is often almost obliterated by the profuseness of the markings, especially on the larger two-thirds of the egg. The color of the surface markings is usually "Kaiser brown," but they show considerable variation, dependent upon the amount of pigment deposited, ranging from "brick red" to "chestnut brown." The spots are somewhat elongated and vary from small pin points to large blotches that may completely cover the larger end of the egg. These have a decided tendency to spiral from left to right. The underlying markings are inconspicuous and are only visible on eggs having a pale background and then they are of small size and indistinct. The eggs are generally flecked with additional markings consisting of a few intense irregular spots or fine lines of slate black to black. These blackbird-like markings are almost always on the larger end, although on many eggs they are entirely wanting. In series the eggs of the western sandpiper have a decidedly bright red appearance, and are thus distinct from any eggs occurring in the Hooper Bay region.

The western sandpiper has been known to lay five eggs.

The measurements of 120 eggs, furnished by Mr. Brandt, average 30.8 by 21.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 32.5 by 22.3, 32 by 22.8, 28.7 by 21.6, and 30.3 by 21.1 millimeters.

Young.—H. B. Conover tells me that both sexes incubate, at least both had incubation patches. He says in his notes:

On June 15 the first newly hatched young were found. The parents were very solicitous and flew about twittering anxiously. Soon other old birds joined them and seemed just as anxious as if the young were their own. This habit of these sandpipers in joining forces to help their neighbors was very noticeable both before and after the eggs had hatched. By June 30 half-grown young that could already fly for a few yards were being seen. Western sandpipers with their chicks were everywhere, and during a walk around the tundra you had a constant attendance of anxious mothers and fathers wheeling about. Eggs were still being found on July 5. By July 18 the mud flats were covered with fully fledged young of this species.

The incubation period for this species seems to be about 21 days. A nest found on May 26 with four eggs hatched on June 15 late in the evening. Another found on May 29 with three eggs in it, had four eggs on May 30, and three young and a pipped egg on the evening of June 19. The rapidity with which these birds lay and hatch their eggs and raise their young is very remarkable. In 60 days from their arrival on the nesting grounds the young are full grown and taking care of themselves.

Mr. Brandt in his manuscript says:

It seemed to us as if every western sandpiper about Hooper Bay must have deposited its first egg on practically the same day, because the four days following May 26 more than 50 nests were recorded, and after June 15 the beautiful brown and black mottled young all of the same size were to be found everywhere. These newly born bird mites are not long abed, however, for in one case an hour after hatching their cradle was empty.

Plumages.—The downy young western sandpiper, when first hatched, is richly colored in warm, bright browns and buffs, quite different in appearance from the young semipalmated sandpiper. Behind a broad "cinnamon buff" forehead is a large, rounded crown patch extending from above the eyes to the nape, in which the down is basally black, but deeply tipped "burnt sienna"; in the center of this a cluster of buffy down tips produces a spot, which is divided by a blackish median stripe extending down to the bill; a band of pale buff, produced by down tips, encircles the sides and rear of the crown patch; there is a loral stripe and a short malar stripe of black; the sides of the head and neck are "cinnamon buff"; and a variable pattern of "burnt sienna" decorates the auricular region, behind and above the eye. The remainder of the upper parts, back, wings, rump, and thighs are a mixture of black and dark, rich browns, "bay," "burnt sienna," and "amber brown," sprinkled, in an irregular pattern, in the darker portions with tiny buff tips. The under parts vary from pale buff on the breast to buffy white on the throat and to white on the belly. The bright colors fade to dull browns and grayish as the chick grows older. The first of the juvenal plumage appears on the scapulars and then on the sides of the breast.

In fresh juvenal plumage, as seen in Alaska in June, the crown is "sepia" with "pinkish cinnamon" edgings; the nape is "drab-gray," streaked with dusky; the feathers of the mantle are brownish black, edged with "tawny" on the back and broadly edged with "tawny" and white on the scapulars; the rump, upper tail coverts, and central tail feathers are "sepia"; the other rectrices are "light mouse gray"; the wing coverts are "mouse gray," tipped with "tawny" or lighter buff; the throat and under parts are white, washed on the breast with "light cinnamon-drab," and streaked on the sides of the breast with dusky. This plumage fades somewhat during migration and the body plumage is mostly all molted before October. In their first winter plumage young birds can be distinguished from adults only by the wing coverts and a few retained scapulars and tertials. At the first prenuptial molt they become practically adult.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in the summer and fall, molting the body plumage in July and August and the wings and tail in November or later. The prenuptial molt in March and April involves only the body plumage. The fresh plumage, in April, is veiled with "drab-gray" tips, which soon wear away, revealing the bright nuptial colors.

Food.—Very little has been published on the food of the western sandpiper, but it probably feeds on the same things as the other small sandpipers with which it associates. Arthur H. Howell (1924) says:

Six stomachs of this bird collected in Alabama showed its food to be minute fly larvae, aquatic beetles and bugs, marine worms, and small snails.

Stuart T. Danforth (1925) found 150 bloodworms and a Hydrophilid larva in the stomach of one taken in Porto Rico.

Behavior.—S. F. Rathbun has sent me the following notes on the habits of the western sandpiper on the coast of Washington:

This is one of the small sandpipers of this region that will be found common at the time of the migration periods along the ocean beaches and on the tide flats. It occurs in flocks of varying sizes, some of which contain an exceedingly large number of birds. At times if care is used one can approach a flock quite closely, often within 15 or 20 feet, and it is of interest to watch the actions of the individuals. They are active birds, being constantly on the move as they feed, and while thus engaged keep up a continual conversation, as it were, this being of the nature of a soft, rolling whistle which is pleasant to hear. These sandpipers seem to prefer to feed at or near the waters edge, particularly where there is an ebb and flow, being very active in following up the water as it recedes and equally so in avoiding its incoming, but always at the very edge as it were. They secure their food by a skimming like movement of the bill over the surface of the mud that has just been covered by the water, and as the birds advance or retreat in following the flow it is quite amusing to observe the seeming pains taken to avoid coming into contact with it. And still at times individuals may be seen in some of the very shallow spots. It is a fine sight to see a flock of these sandpipers suddenly take alarm as they are feeding; all quickly spring into the air as if moved by the same impulse at exactly the same moment, and then form a compact body that will execute a variety of evolutions in perfect harmony. The flock will rise and fall and wheel and turn, and at times may split into several smaller ones, these to again reunite, and should one happen to stand where the light falls directly on the birds the white of their underparts as they turn is very striking. These actions may be repeated a number of times, and then without warning the flock of birds will alight and quickly scatter in search of food. Scenes like this are what give an enlightenment to the waste places and fortunately, under the protection now afforded the species, are likely to continue to be enacted in the future. But large as the numbers of the western sandpiper still appear to be, they are not comparable to those of fifteen or twenty years ago, and the cause of this decrease in their numbers is the same old story. It seems hardly possible that a bird so small could have been regarded as game and its hunting come under the name of sport, but such was the case and it brought about the logical result. One may be thankful, however, that this no longer can be done, and hope that the lapse of time may bring about somewhat of an increase in the number of these birds.

Voice.—John T. Nichols contributes the following on the calls of this species:

The most common loud call of the western sandpiper has the ee sound found in the kreep of the least sandpiper, a plaintive quality as in the voice of the sanderling, and suggests somewhat the squawk of a young robin. It is variable and may be written chee-rp, cheep, or chir-eep. It seems to be the flight note of the species, corresponding to the cherk of the semipalmated sandpiper, and is also used by a bird on the ground calling to others in the air which alight with it, as such flight notes sometimes are. Its closest resemblance with a note of the semipalmated is to the serup sometimes heard from that bird when flushing.

Some of the calls of the western are apparently indistinguishable from those of the semipalmated sandpiper, but as studied on the northwest coast of Florida, where it greatly outnumbered the other form, more seemed different. Birds took wing with a sirp, or at another time a chir-ir-ip, which heard also in a medley of variations from a flock already on the wing, suggesting the notes of the horned lark, may be more or less analogous with the short flocking note of the semipalmated sandpiper.

Field marks.—It is most difficult and often impossible to distinguish between the western and the semipalmated sandpipers in life; and I have experienced difficulty in distinguishing between them even in the hand. The western has a longer bill, and I believe that the bill measurements of corresponding sexes do not overlap, though they approach very closely; but the longest-billed female semipalmated may have a longer bill than the shortest-billed male western. In spring and summer plumages the western shows much more rufous in the upper parts and is more conspicuously and more heavily streaked on the breast, but in winter plumage the two species are very much alike. Mr. Nichols has given me a few characters by which this species can be recognized even in winter; he calls it "a somewhat larger, rangier, paler, grayer bird" than the semipalmated; it also has "better developed white stripes over the eyes which meet more broadly on the forehead, the top of the head is not so dark, its dark auricular area is not so prominent, the markings on the top, and particularly on the sides, of the head and neck are finer.

As to the bills, he says:

There is a subtle difference in their bills, however, which I have frequently noticed in life and once or twice checked by taking specimens. The bill of a long-billed semipalmated sandpiper is quite straight and becomes slender toward the end; that of a short-billed western is not so slender toward the end and with just an appreciable downward bend before its tip. In long-billed individuals of the western sandpiper the bill becomes slender toward the end and frequently has a decided drop at the tip. Such birds are unmistakably different to anyone thoroughly familiar with the semipalmated sandpiper.

Fall.—Like many other waders, these little sandpipers begin to move off their breeding grounds at a very early date. As early as June 21, 1914, F. S. Hersey saw western sandpipers flocking at the mouth of the Yukon River, Alaska. Some of the flocks contained from 40 to 60 birds. The larger flocks were all of this species, but the smaller flocks often contained one long-billed dowitcher.

Doctor Nelson (1887) says, of its fall wanderings:

Early in July the young are on the wing and begin to gather in flocks toward the 1st of August. The last of these birds are seen on the coast of Norton Sound and the Yukon mouth the 1st of October. Although it is not recorded from the Seal and Aleutian Islands, I have seen the bird at St. Lawrence Island, south of Bering Straits, and at several points along the northeastern coast of Siberia, and it frequents the Arctic coasts of Alaska in addition to being found throughout the interior along streams where suitable flats occur. Murdoch notes it as a fall visitor at Point Barrow. It has been found in abundance on the southeast coast of the Territory, where it occurs during the migrations.

On the coast of British Columbia and farther south it is an abundant fall migrant, but it is rare or casual inland; the first arrivals sometimes reach California before the middle of July. Migration records for the great interior are almost entirely lacking and how it reaches the Atlantic coast, where it is so abundant in fall and winter, is a mystery.

Mr. Nichols wrote to me as follows:

The occurrence of this bird on the North Atlantic coast of the United States is irregular. At times it is really numerous on Long Island over periods of several years, and then it becomes rare again. In the 1912 southward migration the western was carefully looked for among the abundant semipalmated sandpiper but no evidence of its presence was found. In 1913 a single bird with a very white head and a peculiar note suggesting a young robin was, I now feel confident, a western sandpiper, at the time it passed as unidentified. The following year one of the white-headed long-billed juvenal westerns was picked out in a flock of semipalmated in August and collected. Later several others, all well-marked birds were identified in flocks of the semipalmated. In 1916 and 1917 the species was still more numerous. On October 12, 1917, at Long Beach with R. C. Murphy it was estimated that about one-half the Ereunetes were this, one-half the common eastern form. Specimens of each were obtained from gunners present. The following year (1918) a flock on the beach in late spring (June 2) were predominatingly western; the species returned again from the north in early July (July 4). During this or the immediately succeeding southward migrations the semipalmated fell off in numbers, and furthermore, a great many birds thought to be western were indeterminate. Mr. E. P. Bicknell met the same condition which I found at Mastic further west at Long Beach. I remember a letter wherein he spoke of the semipalmated being replaced by the western, but I did not take just that view of it. For a year or two I have no real idea how common either species was. I saw numerous birds that seemed to be western, but mostly indeterminate, and took no specimens. Later the standard semipalmated reestablished its usually large numbers and this season (1925) probably for the first time the western was again common among them, about as in 1916, some of this latter form easily identifiable birds (in life).

Winter.—Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says:

The western sandpiper is the most abundant of all the waders that winter on this coast. It is not unusual to see thousands of these birds any day during the winter months. It can almost be considered a permanent resident, as it is only absent from May 20 until July 8. The adults arrive in worn breeding plumage and immediately begin to moult the feathers of the head and throat. By the first week in August they have acquired their autumn plumage.

Among the big flocks of small sandpipers that we saw all winter frequenting the extensive mud flats in the vicinity of Tampa Bay, Florida, I am satisfied that this species was well represented, if not the predominating species. I confess that I can not identify in life more than a very small percentage of these little "peep," and then only when seen under most favorable circumstances. One dislikes to shoot any number of the gentle little birds for identification. But what few we shot proved to be western sandpipers, and I am inclined to think that most of them were. Mr. Nichols writes to me:

In my limited experience mauri is commoner than pusillus on the west coast of Florida. In Wakulla County in March and September, 1919, most all the Ereunetes were western, only one or two among them definitely identified as pusillus; and in April, 1917, two or three western were identified with least sandpipers south of Sanibel Light.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—North America, Central America, the West Indies, and northern South America.

Breeding range.—So far as known, the western sandpiper breeds only in Alaska. North to Cape Prince of Wales, Cape Blossom, Point Barrow, and Camden Bay. East to Camden Bay and St. Michael. South to St. Michael, Pastolik, and Hooper Bay. West to Hooper Bay, Nome, and Cape Prince of Wales. It has been taken in summer in northeastern Siberia at two points, East Cape on July 14, 1913, and Cape Serdze, on July 16, 1913.

Winter range.—The Pacific, Gulf, and South Atlantic coasts of the United States, the West Indies, Central America, and northern South America. North to Washington (Dungeness Spit, and Smith Island); Texas (Brownsville and Corpus Christi); Louisiana (Cameron and Vermilion Parishes); Alabama (Dauphin Island); and rarely, North Carolina (Pea Island). East to rarely, North Carolina (Pea Island and Fort Macon); South Carolina (Charleston); Georgia (Blackbeard Island); Florida (Amelia Island, and Fort Myers); Cuba (Guantanamo); and Trinidad. South to Trinidad; Venezuela (Margarita Island); probably northern Colombia (Sabanilla); probably Costa Rica (Barranca Puntarenas); Tehuantepec (Tehuantepec City); and Lower California (La Paz). West to Lower California (La Paz); California (San Diego County, Alameda, Oakland, and Berkeley); and Washington (Point Chehalis; Seattle, and Dungeness Spit). It also has been detected in winter on San Clemente Island, off the coast of southern California.

Spring migration.—The spring movement of birds that have wintered on the South Atlantic coast is imperfectly known, there being available no interior records that indicate the route by which they reach the breeding grounds. The species has been detected at Long Beach, New York, as early as April 25, and at Mastic, New York, on May 12, while late spring departures from South Carolina have been noted at Charleston on May 8, and from Mastic, New York, on June 2.

Early dates of arrival in the West are: Arizona, Fort Verde, April 11, and San Pedro River, April 17; Colorado, Denver, May 2, and Loveland, May 9; Nevada, Smoky Creek, May 6; Idaho, Meridian, May 6; British Columbia, Sumas, April 20, and Chilliwack, April 26; and Alaska, Kuiu Island, April 28, Craig, May 2, Patterson's Bay, May 7, Admiralty Island, May 8, Fort Kenai, May 12, Hooper Bay, May 14, and Prince of Wales Island, May 15.

Late dates of spring departure at western points are: Texas, Somerest, May 5, San Angelo, May 6, Seadrift, May 8, and Tom Green and Concho Counties, May 12; Kansas, Lawrence, May 26; South Dakota, Vermilion, May 24, and Forestburg, May 26; lower California, San Quentin Bay, May 10; California, Fresno, May 12, Santa Barbara, May 16, Los Angeles, May 19, Alameda, May 21, and Owens Lake, June 1; Oregon, Mercer, May 14; Washington, Ilwaco, May 18, Neah Bay, May 24, Clallam Bay, May 25, and Quillayute Needles, May 30.

Fall migration.—Early dates of arrival in the fall are: British Columbia, Courtenay, July 7, Nootka Sound, July 23, and Okanagan Landing, July 28; Washington, Cape Flattery, July 2, Destruction Island, July 3, and Granville, July 4; Oregon, Cow Creek Lake, July 4; California, Santa Barbara, July 3, Fresno, July 5, and Tulare Lake, July 7; Lower California, San Quentin, August 24; Mexico, San Mateo, August 7; Idaho, Meridian, July 23, and Big Lost River, July 25; Wyoming, Fort Bridger, July 13; Oklahoma, Old Greer County, July 19; Arizona, Tucson, August 16, and San Bernardino Ranch, August 24; Texas, Mobeetie, July 27, Beaumont, August 5, Rockport, August 12, Hereford, August 18, and Padre Island, August 21; Massachusetts, Monomoy Island, July 19, and Nahant, August 4; New York, Mastic, July 4, and Freeport, July 16; South Carolina, Charleston, July 8; and Florida, James Island, July 20.

Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska, Craig, September 24, and St. Lazaria Island, September 29; British Columbia, Chilliwack, September 11, and Comox, September 26; Montana, Great Falls, September 4; New Mexico, Albuquerque, October 5; Massachusetts, North Truro, September 2, and Harvard, September 8; New York, Chateaugay, September 13, Amityville, September 17, and Long Beach, October 12; New Jersey, Cape May County, September 14; District of Columbia, Anacostia River, September 25; and Virginia, Four-mile Run, September 11.

Casual records.—Casual occurrences of the western sandpiper must, of course, be based upon specimen evidence, as this species is easily confused with the semipalmated sandpiper. For this reason several records are considered doubtful, while in other regions it may be more numerous than is now known. One was taken August 21, 1907, at Beaver, Pennsylvania, while two were collected at Burlington, Iowa, on October 15, 1895, and one at Columbus, Ohio, on September 12, 1925.

Egg dates.—Alaska: 159 records, May 23 to July 7: 80 records, May 29 to June 15.

CROCETHIA ALBA (Pallas) SANDERLING

HABITS

Along the forearm of Cape Cod, from the elbow at Chatham to the wrist near Provincetown, extend about 30 miles of nearly continuous ocean beaches, to which we can add 10 more if we include that long, narrow strip of beach and marsh called Monomoy. Facing the broad Atlantic and exposed to all its furious storms, these beaches are swept clean and pounded to a hard surface by the ceaseless waves. Even in calm weather the restless ocean swells and surges up and down over these sloping sands, and the winter storms may make or wash away a mile or so of beach in a single season. Here on the ocean side of the beach, the "back side of the beach," as it is called on the cape, is the favorite resort of the little sanderlings in fair weather or in foul. They are well named "beach birds," for here they are seldom found anywhere except on the ocean beaches, and I believe that the same is true of the Pacific coast. They are particularly active and happy during stormy weather, for then a bountiful supply of food is cast up by the heavy surf. But at all times the surf line attracts them, where they nimbly follow the receding waves to snatch their morsels of food or skillfully dodge the advancing line of foam as it rolls up the beach.

Spring.—To the ends of the earth and back again extend the migrations of the sanderling, the cosmopolitan globe trotter; few species, if any, equal it in world-wide wanderings. Nesting in the Arctic regions of both hemispheres, it migrates through all of the continents, and many of the islands, to the southernmost limits of south America and Africa, and even to Australia.

The spring migration starts in March, though the last migrants may hot leave their winter resorts until late in April; they have been noted in Chile from April 11 to 29, and even in May. The earliest migrants have been known to reach New England and Ohio before the end of March. The main flight passes through Massachusetts in May, a few birds lingering into June. In the interior and on the Pacific coast the dates are about the same. C. G. Harrold has taken it in Manitoba as early as April 29, but William Rowan (1926) says that the main flight comes along during the last week in May and the first few days of June, when it is abundant.

A. L. V. Manniche (1910) thus describes the arrival of the sanderling on its breeding grounds in northeastern Greenland:

The sanderling arrived at Stormkap singly or in couples respectively June 2, 1907, and May 28, 1908. In company with the other waders and large flocks of snow buntings, which arrived at the same time, the sanderlings would in the first days after their arrival resort to the few spots in the marshes and the surrounding stony plains, which were free from snow; here they led a miserable existence. Heavy snow storms and low temperature in connection with want of open water made the support of life difficult to the birds.

The temperature increased quickly and caused in a few days the places in which the birds could find food to extend very much. The areas free from snow grew larger and larger, and the ice along the beaches of small lakes and ponds with low water disappeared before the scorching sun; at the same time small ponds of melting snow were formed around in the field. Now the sanderlings would in couples retire from the party of other birds, and lead a quiet and tranquil life on the stony and dry plains. Now and then they would pay a visit to ponds of melting snow and beaches of fresh water lakes in order to bathe and seek food, and here they would join the party of other small waders as for instance Tringa alpina and Aegialitis hiaticula. According to my experience old birds would never resort to salt water shore.

Courtship.—The same observer tells us all we know about the courtship of the sanderling, as follows:

The pairing began toward the middle of June. The peculiar pairing flight of the male was to be seen and heard when the weather was fine, and especially in the evening. Uttering a snarling or slight neighing sound, he mounts to a height of some two meters from the surface of the ground on strongly vibrating wings, to continue at this height his flight for a short distance, most frequently in a straight line, but sometimes in small circles.

When excited he frequently sits on the top of a solitary large stone, his dorsal feathers blown out, his tail spread, and his wings half let down, producing his curious subdued pairing tones. He, however, soon returns to the female, which always keeps mute, and then he tries by slow, affected, almost creeping movements to induce her to pairing, until at last the act of pairing takes place; when effected, both birds rush away in rapid flight, to return soon after to the nesting place. I have also observed males in pairing flight without being able to discover any female in the neighborhood, and then, of course, without realizing the pairing as completing act. The male is in the pairing time very quarrelsome, and does not permit any strange bird to intrude on the selected domain. He seems to be most envious against birds of his own kin.

Nesting.—The sanderling breeds only in the far north, so far north that only very few Arctic explorers have found its nest. Strangely, however, the first recorded nest was found in a region where it rarely breeds and considerably south of its main breeding grounds. This was the nest found by Roderick MacFarlane (1908) on the barren grounds of northern Canada, of which he says:

On the 29th of June, 1864, we discovered a nest of this species in the barren grounds east of Fort Anderson. It contained four eggs, which we afterwards learnt were the first and only authenticated examples at that time known to American naturalists. The nest was composed of withered grasses and leaves placed in a small cavity or depression in the ground. The contents of the eggs were quite fresh, and they measured 1.44 inches by 0.95 to 0.99 in breadth, and their ground color was a brownish olive marked with faint spots and blotches of bister. These markings were very generally diffused, but were a little more numerous about the larger ends. They were of an oblong pyriform shape. The parent bird was snared on the nest. It is a very rare bird in the Anderson River country, and we failed to find another nest thereof.

The main breeding grounds of the sanderling are probably on the more northern Arctic islands, but not enough nests have ever been found anywhere to produce the hosts of birds which we see on migrations. Col. H. W. Feilden (1877) gives the following description of his discovery of the nest of this species:

I first observed this species in Grinnell Land on the 5th of June, 1876, flying in company with knots and turnstones; at this date it was feeding, like the other waders, on the buds of Saxifraga oppositifolia. This bird was by no means abundant along the coast of Grinnell Land, but I observed several pairs in the aggregate, and found a nest of this species containing two eggs in latitude 82° 33' N. on June 24, 1876. This nest, from which I killed the male bird, was placed on a gravel ridge, at an altitude of several hundred feet above the sea, and the eggs were deposited in a slight depression in the center of a recumbent plant of Arctic willow, the lining of the nest consisting of a few withered leaves and some of the last year's catkins. August 8, 1876, along the shores of Robeson Channel, I saw several parties of young ones, three to four in number, following their parents, and led by the old birds, searching most diligently for insects. At this date they were in a very interesting stage of plumage, being just able to fly, but retaining some of the down on their feathers.

The best account we have of the home life of the sanderling is given to us by Mr. Manniche (1910), who found this species to be one of the commonest breeding birds in northeastern Greenland. He writes:

In the extensive moor and marsh stretches west of Stormkap are many smaller stony and clayey parts lying scattered like a sort of islands. As these "stone isles" are most restricted in size, I could without special difficulty realize the existence of the birds here, and I found several nestling sanderlings on such places. The problem was decidedly more difficult to me when the birds had their homes on the extensive table-lands farther inland; here it will depend on luck to meet with a couple of nestling sanderlings.

The laying began about June 20. The first nest found containing eggs dates from June 28; these had, however, already been brooded for some days. The clutch of eggs latest found dates from July 15; the eggs in this nest were very much incubated. The sanderling places its nest on the before mentioned dry clay-mixed stony plains sparsely covered with Salix arctica, Dryas octopetala, Saxifraga oppositifolia, and a few other scattered low growths. I only found the nest on places of this type, never on moors or plains entirely uncovered. The larger or smaller extent, the higher or lower position over the level of the sea and the distance from nearest shore of such locality is, according to my experience, of no consequence. It only seems, as if the sanderling prefers to nest on such places, which are situated not very far from fresh water—a lake or a pond—to the shores of which the young ones are often directed. Some nests found prove, however, that the birds do not insist upon this.

The situation of the nest is also extremely constant. At the edge—or rarer farther in—of a tuft of Dryas, the bird will form a cup-shaped not very deep nest hollow, the bottom of which is sparsely lined with withered leaves of Salix arctica or other plants growing in the neighbourhood. In size, and partly in shape the sanderling's nest resembles that of Tringa alpina. The striking likeness in color to the surroundings and the monotonous character of the landscape makes it extremely difficult to find the nest unless the bird itself shows the way to it. The number of eggs in a clutch is always four. I found eleven nests with eggs and some fifty hatches of downy young ones but none of these differed from the normal number.

By excellent tactics the breeding female understands to keep secret the hiding place of the nest. She will generally leave the nest so early and secretly, that even the most experienced and attentive eye does not perceive it. She rushes rapidly from the nest with her head pressed down against her back executing some peculiar creeping movements quite mute, and hidden between stones and plants; following natural hollows in the ground she will first appear in a distance of at least 100 meters from the nest. By means of short, snarling, and faint cries and now and then by flying up, she will then try to turn one's attention to herself. She will often settle for some moments on small stones, clods of earth, and similar places, from which she again will rush away with her dorsal feathers erected and her wings hanging down and always in a direction opposite to that in which her nest is situated.

H. E. Dresser (1904) gives a translation of notes on this species made by Dr. H. Walter in the Taimyr Peninsula, from which I quote as follows:

The nests, found late in June and early in July, contained four eggs each in three cases and three eggs in one case. The nest was placed, unlike that of the other waders, which affected the grass-covered portions of the tundra, between bare clay lumps on moss, and consisted of a shallow depression lined with a few dry straws and a white tangle. In two cases the male, and in two the female, was incubating. On the 16/29 July, when the young in down were taken, the male showed anxiety, but the female was not seen. During the breeding season some of these birds wandered about in small flocks. This species remained until the end of August.

Eggs.—The sanderling lays four eggs, sometimes only three. The eggs are very rare in collections and few are available for study, but they have been well described and fully illustrated. The eggs taken by Doctor Walter are described by Mr. Dresser (1904) as follows:

Blunt pyriform, fine grained, with a faint gloss. Ground color pale yellowish white, with a very pale greenish tinge and somewhat marked with small yellowish brown and dark brown spots; a few indistinct light violet gray markings; at the larger end a few blackish dots and streaks.

In the colored illustrations of 10 eggs before me, the shapes vary from ovate pyriform, the prevailing shape, to subpyriform. The prevailing ground colors are greenish olive, "ecru-olive," "lime green," or "grape green"; a few eggs are more buffy, "cream buff" to "deep olive buff." The markings are small, and often inconspicuous, spots, scattered quite evenly over the entire surface, but sometimes more thickly about the larger end. These are in dull shades of brown, "buffy brown," "snuff brown," or "sepia." They are not handsome or showy eggs. The measurements of 41 eggs, furnished by Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, average 35.7 by 24.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 38.2 by 24.7, 34.1 by 26.1, 33.1 by 24.4 and 35.3 by 23.5 millimeters.

Young.—Authorities seem to differ as to whether both sexes incubate or not. Both Feilden and Walter secured incubating males, but Manniche (1910) says:

Till the laying is finished both birds will faithfully accompany each other, but as soon as the brooding begins, the males will join in smaller flocks and wander around on the table lands and at the beaches of the fresh waters, often in company with Tringa canutus and Strepsilas interpres. They usually left the country some days before the middle of July. I secured several males for examination but never found the least sign of a breeding spot.

He gives the period of incubation as 23 to 24 days and says of the young:

The bursting of the egg shells will generally begin already some three days before the emergence of the young. The mother bird will immediately carefully carry the shells away from the nest in order not to attract the attention of ravens and skuas. Between the emergence of the young will elapse not more than a few hours; as soon as the latest born young one feels sufficiently strong; that is, when the down is dry, all the nestlings will leave the nest at the same time. If the old female considers the nearest surroundings of the nest to be unsafe or too difficult in food for the brood, she will immediately lead the young away. Thus I have met with newly hatched young ones, hardly one hour after their departure from the nest in a distance of 500 to 600 meters from this. In the cases concerned the disturbance by my frequent visits to the nests during the breeding may have caused the early departure.

In the following 12 to 14 days the chicks are guarded by their careful and extremely vigilant mother, who leads them over stony plains, by overflows of melted snow and fresh-water beaches; they are eagerly occupied in seeking food, which at this period exclusively consists of small insects and larvae and pupae of these. I have often observed that the chicks take shelter under the wings of their mother from the cold nights and the heavy showers. The chicks' power of resistance against cold and severe weather is relatively small.

When the sanderling wants to protect her young ones against hostile attacks she executes still more surprising systematic tactics than she does when brooding. Already when at a distance of some 200 to 300 meters from the young ones the old female would rush toward me and by all kinds of flapping and creeping movements in an opposite direction try to lead me astray; all the while she would squeak like a young one, and now growl angrily, striving to draw my attention toward herself only. Now and then she would rise very high in the air in a direct rapid flight, to disappear behind a rock on the opposite beach of a lake, etc. From quite another direction she soon appeared again just before my feet.

If I finally retired still farther away from the young ones and for a while kept myself hidden in the field, she would fly slowly, sometimes quite low, over the earth to the spot where the young still were lying motionless and mute, with their bodies pressed flat against the earth and their neck and head stretched out. When at last the female considers the danger to be over, she, flying or running close to the chicks, produces a short chirping song, at the tones of which all four young ones suddenly get up and begin to run about. Only in this case the sanderling produces its highly peculiar "sanderling song," which is very similar to the song of Sylvia curruca. As long as the young kept lying quiet on the ground in the before-mentioned attitude they were extremely difficult to find, if I had not from my ambush by aid of my field glass exactly marked down the spot where they last appeared. The young ones do not seek any real cover, as in hollows in the ground, under plants, behind stones, or similar natural hiding places. When I had found a single young one, which while I kept it in my hands began to chirp, it generally happened that the three other young, which had till then kept quiet, suddenly rose and, with the wings raised, uttered a quite fine mouse-like squeaking and hastily rushed away, while the old female, as if paralyzed, lay down before my feet, still squeaking exactly like the chicks.

Within 12 to 14 days the young ones are full grown and able to fly. Strange to say, the brood of the sanderling seems to suffer very little from hostile persecution, a fact which may be due to the accomplished vigilance and prudent behaviour of the old female and the young as well as the extremely suitably coloured clothing of these. I wonder that these defenceless small beings can avoid the Polar fox, which in this season more frequently than usual visits the domain of the waders, and which, as well known, has an excellent sense of smell.

Plumages.—The nestling sanderling is thus described in Witherby's Handbook (1920):

Forehead buff with a median black line from base of upper mandible to crown; nape buff, down with dusky bases; rest of upper parts variegated light buff, warm buff and black and more or less spangled white; lores buff, two black lines across lores toward eye; under parts white, cheeks, chin and throat suffused light buff.

Mr. Manniche (1910) gives a colored plate showing four ages of downy young sanderlings, which the above description fits. A nestling 7 days old shows the remiges about one-third grown, while the body is still all downy. Another nearly fully grown only 11 days old is still downy on the head, neck, rump, and crissum, but is nearly fully feathered on the mantle and wings, partly feathered on the under parts and the wings extend beyond the stump of a tail; it must be close to the flight stage. Such is the rapid development of these little Arctic birds that Mr. Manniche (1910) says that they can fly when 14 days old.

In fresh juvenal plumage in the Arctic the feathers of the crown, mantle, wing coverts, scapulars, and tertials are blackish brown, broadly tipped, and all except those of the crown are also notched, with buff; the sides of the head, neck, and breast are washed with buff; before these birds reach us on migration these buff tints have mostly faded out to creamy yellow or white; the feathers of the lower back, rump, and upper tail coverts are ashy brown or grayish buff, each with a dusky shaft streak and narrowly tipped with dusky; as these feathers are not molted during the first winter they produce a peculiar rump pattern by which young birds can be easily recognized. Young birds are in juvenal plumage when they arrive here, with conspicuous black and white backs. But the postjuvenal molt begins in September and is generally completed before November; this molt involves the body plumage, except the rump, and some of the wing coverts and tertials. The first winter plumage is like that of the adult, plain gray above and white below, except for the retained juvenal feathers as indicated above.

A partial, or perhaps nearly complete, prenuptial molt takes place in young birds between March and May, involving the body plumage, sometimes the tail and most of the scapulars and wing coverts. In this first nuptial plumage young birds are much like adults, but can be recognized by some retained wing coverts and tertials; the latter are shorter than in adults, reaching not quite to the tip of the fourth primary in the folded wing; in the adult wing the tertials reach nearly to the tip of the third primary. At the next molt, the first postnuptial, the adult winter plumage is assumed.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from July to October or later. The body plumage is molted first, mainly in August and September, and the wings later, mainly in October; specimens have been seen with primaries in molt in February and March, but these are probably abnormal. The prenuptial molt of adults is incomplete, involving nearly all of the body plumage, but not all of the feathers of the back, scapulars, tertials, or wing coverts. The fresh nuptial plumage in early May is veiled with broad grayish white tips, which soon wear away. There is great individual variation in the amount of red assumed and in the molting date.

Food.—The sanderling obtains most of its food by probing in the wet sand of the seashore or by picking up what is washed up and left by the receding waves. The former method is well described by Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1920) as follows:

On the hard wet sand of the beaches one may see in places the characteristic probings of the sanderling without a trace of their foot marks, and these may be the cause of considerable mystery to the uninitiated. While the semipalmated sandpiper runs about with his head down dabbing irregularly here and there, the sanderling vigorously probes the sand in a series of holes a quarter of an inch to an inch apart in straight or curving lines a foot to 2 feet long. Sometimes the probings are so near together that the line is almost a continuous one like the furrow of a miniature plough. The sand is thrown up in advance so that one can tell in which direction the bird is going. A close inspection of the probings often reveals their double character, showing that the bill was introduced partly open. The probings are for the minute sand fleas and other crustaceans in the sand, their principal food. I have seen sanderlings running about nimbly on the beach, catching the sand fleas which were hopping on the surface. I have also seen them catching flies. I have a record of one I shot in 1884, whose stomach was stuffed with small specimens of the common mussel, Mytilus edulis.

The food consists mainly of sand fleas, shrimps, and other small crustaceans, small mollusks, marine worms, flies, fly larvae, and other insects, and sometimes a few seeds. Early in the season in the Arctic regions when animal life of all kinds is scarce the sanderling is said to subsist on the buds of saxifrage and other plants, as well as bits of moss and algae.

Behavior.—I have always loved to walk by the seashore alone with Nature, and especially to tramp for miles over the hard sands of our ocean beaches, where the heaving bosom of the restless sea sends its flood of foaming breakers rolling up the steep slopes, cut into hills and valleys by the action of the waves. From the crest of the beach above or from the lonely sand dunes beyond comes the mellow whistle of the plover, disturbed in his reveries; out over the blue waters a few terns are flitting about or screaming in anxiety for their, now well grown, young perched on the beach. Flocks of small shore birds hurry past well out over the breakers, flashing light or dark, as they wheel and turn; and high overhead the big gray gulls are circling. But right at our feet is one of the characteristic features of the ocean beach, a little flock of feeding sanderlings, confiding little fellows, apparently unmindful of our presence. They run along ahead of us as fast as we can walk, their little black legs fairly twinkling with rapid motion. They are intent only on picking up their little bits of food and most skillfully avoid the incoming wave by running up the beach just ahead of it; occasionally a wave overtakes one when it flutters above it; then as the wave recedes they run rapidly down with it, quickly picking up what food they find. If we force them to fly, which they seem reluctant to do, they circle out over the waves and settle on the beach again a short distance ahead of us; by repeating this maneuver again and again they lead us on and on up the beach, until, tired of being disturbed, they finally make a wide circle out over the water around us and alight on the beach far behind us. Their flight is swift, direct, and generally low over the water, with less of the twistings and turnings so common among shore birds. They usually flock by themselves, but are often associated in small numbers with knots, small plovers, or other beach-loving species. When satiated with food or tired of strenuous activity, they retire to the crest of the beach, or the broad sloping sand plains beyond it, to rest and doze or preen their plumage. Here they stand or squat on the sand, often in immense flocks, all facing the wind. Their colors match their surroundings so well that they are not conspicuous and I have often been surprised to see them rise. These large flocks are generally wary and not easily approached. But small parties or single birds feeding along the surf line are very tame and if we sit quietly on the beach, they will often run up quite close to us. Like many other shore birds, they are fond of standing on one leg or even hopping about on it for a long time, as if one leg were missing; often a number of birds will be seen all doing this at the same time, as if playing a sort of game; but if we watch them long enough, the other leg will come down, for they are not cripples.