_Food._--Preble and McAtee (1923) report on the contents of 192
stomachs, as follows:

     The articles of food composing more than 1 per cent of the total
     were: Mollusks, 32.63 per cent; crustaceans, 29.15 per cent; flies
     (Diptera), 23.49 per cent; beetles, 10.29 per cent; marine worms,
     1.27 per cent; and vegetable matter, chiefly algae, 1.21 per cent.
     The vegetable matter, besides algae, included bits of moss and a
     few seeds of grass, lupine, violet, crowberry, and bottle brush.

_Behavior._--Referring to the habits of Pribilof sandpipers, Mr. Palmer
(1899) says:

     They appear stupid when solitary and without a family, and will
     stand perfectly still, eying one from a little eminence.
     Occasionally we are startled by a loud _druuett_ from the side of a
     sand dune, and I was at a loss for some time to discover the owner
     of this most unmusical sound, which finally turned out to be an
     individual of this species standing motionless and watching us. It
     would seem impossible for this sound to have issued from this bird
     if I had not seen it in the act. These sandpipers have the habit in
     common with others of their kind of suddenly elevating the wing
     directly over the back. Often when alighting on the tundra, as soon
     as they stopped up went one wing, followed soon after, perhaps, by
     the other. Often while watching a flock on the lagoon beach first
     one would elevate a wing, then another; it was always the near wing
     which went up first. I never saw a bird elevate the off wing first.
     I know of no reason for their doing so. They are tame. I have
     walked up to a flock of about 50, and with care could drive them
     before me for some distance before they took flight, being but a
     few feet away. They are often seen feeding in the water up to their
     breasts, and seem to take delight in it. They swim readily, but not
     often. On June 30 I saw one fly out to a stone in a pool, and after
     gathering all the food possible it deliberately swam to another,
     and having visited each stone in the same way flew back to the
     shore and then bathed itself, occasionally taking a swim.

_Voice._--Mr. Hanna (1921) describes the notes of this bird as follows:

     If a person climbs to the sandpiper country on St. George during
     May or June one of his first surprises will be a series of notes
     very much like those of the flicker, a full deep whistle repeated
     in the same pitch about a dozen times in quick succession. The bird
     utters this while on the wing, most likely when it is coming toward
     the intruder with great speed. When close by it wheels and settles
     lightly on a near-by hummock or "niggerhead." One wing will be held
     vertically extended for a few seconds after alighting and may be
     flashed at short intervals thereafter. Another note for which I
     have no descriptive language always reminded me of the sound of
     tree frogs. It is the note usually given when the birds are on the
     ground. While neither can be called a song they are very attractive
     and pleasant to the listener and most surprising to one familiar
     with the "peep peep" of sandpipers in winter.

_Field marks._--In winter the Pribilof sandpiper looks much like the
purple sandpiper; it frequents similar haunts and has much the same
habits. But its summer plumage, with its rufous upper parts and mottled
under parts, is strikingly different. It resembles the Aleutian
sandpiper in all plumages, but it is decidedly larger and, in summer,
its upper parts are lighter rufous and there is more white in the under
parts.

_Fall._--According to Preble and McAtee (1923):

     About the middle of July, when the nesting birds are freed from
     family cares, they begin to resort to the beaches to feed, and at
     night gather in flocks to roost on some favorite rocky point. Later
     the young join the adults and the flocks increase in size through
     August. About August 9 the birds began to be common about the
     beaches, the flocks there apparently being in excess of the number
     breeding on the islands, and in all probability, therefore,
     comprised in part of migrants from other breeding stations. They
     continued to be abundant until my departure on the last of August.

The Pribilof sandpiper is too rare and beautiful to be treated as a game
bird, but Mr. Hanna (1921) writes:

     The birds possess some economic importance to the natives of the
     Pribilofs, and they have occasionally been eaten in the officers'
     messes. Their habit of congregating in fairly compact flocks and
     their fearless unassuming nature make them easy targets. For this
     reason close watch should be kept of the numbers returning
     annually, and should any noticeable diminution take place strict
     prohibitive measures can and should be invoked. This is possible
     because the islands are under strict governmental control as
     regards all wild life. Because of its limited range it would not be
     a difficult matter to completely exterminate the species. Special
     protective measures at this time, however, are not believed to be
     essential because there is even less hunting now than there has
     been for fifty or more years. The introduction of livestock and
     reindeer for fresh food removes in large measure the necessity for
     shooting, and the native is ordinarily too indolent to hunt unless
     he has to do so for food.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Known only from the islands in Bering Sea and the coast of
Alaska.

_Breeding range._--The Pribilof sandpiper breeds on the Pribilof Islands
(St. Paul and St. George Islands) and north in Bering Sea to St. Matthew
Island, Hall Island, and St. Lawrence Island.

_Winter range._--The winter range is imperfectly known, but it has been
taken in this season at Portage Bay, Alaska, and probably occupies much
of the Alaskan coast southeastward to (rarely) the Lynn Canal.

_Migration._--They have been noted in spring to arrive at St. Paul
Island March 5; Nushagak, Alaska, April 1 to 14; St. George Island April
23; at St. Paul Island April 24; and Point Dall, Alaska, May 23.

Late departures in the fall have been observed at St. George Island,
October 3; and St. Paul Island November 16.

Early fall arrivals have been noted on the Alaskan coast at Igiak Bay,
July 23; Tigalda Island, August 5; Unimak, August 14; and Dexter, Norton
Sound, August 29.

_Egg dates._--Pribilof Island: 32 records, May 6 to July 2; 16 records,
May 30 to June 11.

ARQUATELLA PTILOCNEMIS COUESI (Ridgway)

ALEUTIAN SANDPIPER

HABITS

I prefer the above scientific name to the Check List name, because I can
not believe that the Aleutian sandpiper is a subspecies of the purple
sandpiper. The Aleutian sandpiper was originally described by Robert
Ridgway (1880) as a distinct species. Later it was treated, and still
stands on our Check List, as a subspecies of the purple sandpiper,
because it somewhat resembles it in its winter plumage. In Mr. Ridgway's
(1919) latest work, he treats it as a subspecies of the Pribilof
sandpiper, a closely related form, which had been previously described;
he there describes it as "similar to _A. p. ptilocnemis_ but decidedly
smaller and much darker in color; the summer plumage with blackish and
rusty or cinnamon-rufous predominating on back and scapulars, and all
the colors much darker and more extended. Very similar in winter plumage
to _A. maritima_, but summer plumage and young very different, both
being conspicuously marked with rusty on back and scapulars, and the
summer plumage with breast conspicuously blotched or clouded with
dusky."

Among a series of 11 birds of this species, which we collected on Attu
Island, at the extreme western end of the Aleutian Chain, on June 23,
1911, are two birds which closely resemble _ptilocnemis_ in color, but
in size are typical of _couesi_. At least one of them was a breeding
bird, the parent of a brood of downy young, and doubtless both of them
were summer resident birds. Dr. Ernst Hartert (1920) has described the
resident bird of the Commander Islands as a distinct subspecies, under
the name _Erolia maritima quarta_, of which he says: "In full summer
plumage the feather-edgings are broader than in any other form and
brighter, more rusty red, so that the rusty red seems to predominate on
the whole of the upper parts." This description seems to fit our two
birds from Attu Island very well; so that, if _quarta_ is a recognizable
form, as it seems to be, this subspecies should be added to our North
American list. The birds could easily fly across from the Commander
Islands to Attu Island and establish themselves there.

_Spring._--The spring migration of this sandpiper is not extensive. Many
birds have remained all winter on or near their breeding grounds in the
Aleutian Islands; others have wintered along the coast as far south as
Washington. D. E. Brown tells me that they remain on Destruction Island
until May 1 and that they have been seen on Forrester Island as late as
June 15. H. S. Swarth (1911) found them "very abundant" on Kuiu Island
during his stay there from April 25 to May 6; he writes:

     In company with the black turnstone and some other waders, they
     frequented the broad mud flats, which, at low tide, extend over
     hundreds of acres at this point. As the tide advanced their feeding
     grounds became more and more restricted, until, as the last
     available spot was covered, the whole flock departed, with roar of
     wings, to some jutting rocks at the mouth of the bay, there to
     remain, preening their plumage and resting, until the receding
     waters again exposed the mud banks. The flocks seen at this place
     comprised many hundred individuals, and it is curious that the
     species was observed absolutely nowhere else.

Herbert W. Brandt says in his notes from Hooper Bay:

     The Aleutian sandpiper is a common transient visitor in the
     vicinity of Point Dall and is said by the natives to be a breeding
     bird in the mountain fastnesses of Cape Romanzoff. This species was
     first identified by us on May 18, but it may have arrived a few
     days earlier because up to that time we did not suspect its
     presence. It associated itself with the red-backed sandpiper, to
     which in the field it has a marked superficial resemblance and in
     consequence we may have overlooked it. These birds at that time
     travelled in bands of from 20 to 40 individuals and at low tide fed
     on the ice-bound sea beach that was then exposed, but when the high
     water came in and up to the wall of shore ice, thus covering their
     feeding grounds, they moved back along the open river margins and
     marshy pond borders. From May 23 to May 28 they were very common,
     when suddenly they departed, only to reappear in early July. The
     natives are very positive in their assertions that this island
     dweller breeds in the rugged mountains about Cape Romanzoff, but as
     we did not visit that area we could not authenticate their
     statements, nor did we learn anything of its nidification.

Lucien M. Turner (1886) writes:

     The Aleutian sandpiper arrives at St. Michaels early in May of each
     year, and in considerable numbers, being generally, on their
     arrival, in the dark plumage, which is changed for the summer by
     the first of June on this locality. On their appearance they are
     strictly littoral-maritime, resorting to the larger bowlders and
     rocky shelves covered with seaweed, among which these birds
     industriously search for slugs and other marine worms. Usually
     several birds are together, rarely singly, and seldom over 8 or 10
     in a flock.

Dr. Leonhard Stejneger (1885) says that, in the Commander Islands:

     In March their ranks are reinforced by newcomers which have
     wintered on more hospitable shores, and in the latter part of the
     month enormous flocks of 500 or more swarm along the beach,
     especially on the north shore. About one month later the great
     flocks dissolve into small companies, which, following the water
     courses, disperse over the whole island, settling in pairs on
     suitable places at the beaches, on the tundras, or on the mountain
     plateaus, this bird being in fact one of the most numerous and the
     most equally distributed species of land birds on the islands.

_Courtship._--We frequently observed the charming song flight of this
sandpiper in the Aleutian Islands. The birds were especially abundant on
Tanaga Island, where we found them nesting on the little knolls or
hummocks on the tundra in a large alluvial plain back of the beach
hillocks. The males were very active and noisy, indulging in their
hovering song flights, rising 30 or 40 feet in the air and fluttering
down while pouring out a delightful twittering song. Also, while flying
about or while standing on some prominent hummock, they gave their loud,
musical melodious calls of the upland plover; these loud notes were not
heard anywhere except on their breeding grounds and were probably notes
of greeting or of warning to their mates. Doctor Stejneger (1885)
writes:

     It was in the late afternoon of the 28th of April, 1883, that I
     first witnessed this singing performance of the sandpiper. The bird
     rose from the _Rhododendron_ tundra on the northern slope of
     Kamennij Valley, and while flying about on quivering wings,
     sometimes remaining quite still in the air, it uttered a loud,
     agreeable, and melodious twitter, which really must be called a
     "song," whereupon, with outstretched wings, it descended obliquely,
     seating itself upon the top of a tussock. Sitting there, with
     puffed plumage and pendant wings, it produced a loud "bleating," so
     much like that of _Gallinago gallinago_ as to completely convince
     me that the analogous note of the latter is produced by the throat
     in exactly the same manner. During the "bleating" the whole bird
     was quivering with a tremulous motion as if in a high state of
     excitement. The voice was slightly more melodious than that of the
     snipe.

_Nesting._--While wandering over the foothills of Kiska Island on June
17, 1911, I found my first nest of the Aleutian sandpiper. I was
crossing a flat place, high up on a hill, covered with moss and scanty
growth of grass, when the bird fluttered off almost underfoot, feigning
lameness. The nest was a deep hollow in the moss, 3 inches in diameter
and fully 2 inches deep, partially concealed by a few blades of scanty
grass, and lined with dead leaves, a few straws, and a few feathers of
the bird. The four eggs were only slightly incubated. I found a similar
nest, containing three small, downy young, on Attu Island on June 23;
the nest was on a little hummock on a hillside, a deep hollow, lined
with dead leaves and bits of straw. It was the male bird that flew from
the nest in both cases.

Austin H. Clark (1910) found a nest on Attu Island on the side of a
mountain, 700 feet or more above the valley and near an extensive patch
of snow. Alfred M. Bailey (1925) found a nest at Emma Harbor, Siberia,
on July 4, 1921, containing three young and an egg; the nest was "on the
shores of the bay, in gravel along the beach." He also found several
nests the following season near Wales, Alaska; "the nesting sites varied
from exposed depressions in the moss to well-concealed dried grass." A
set of eggs in Edward Arnold's collection, taken by Sheldon and Lamont
on Montague Island, Alaska, June 22, 1916, came from a nest "on débris
just above tidewater."

_Eggs._--The Aleutian sandpiper almost invariably lays four eggs,
although five have been found. These are ovate pyriform in shape and
have a slight gloss. The ground color is "olive buff" or "deep olive
buff." They are heavily, boldly, and irregularly blotched, chiefly about
the larger end, with a few scattering smaller spots. The markings are in
dark browns, "chestnut brown," "burnt umber," and "seal brown," varying
with the thickness of the pigment. There are underlying blotches of
"brownish drab," producing very handsome eggs. They can not always be
distinguished with certainty from eggs of the Pribilof sandpiper, as
they vary greatly in size; they average smaller, but the measurements
overlap widely. The measurements of 50 eggs average 38 by 26.6
millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =43.2= by 26.8,
39.4 by =28=, =35= by 26.3, and 37.3 by =24.1= millimeters.

_Young._--Incubation is apparently performed by both sexes, and both
assist in the care of the young. The birds that I flushed from my two
nests, one with eggs and one with young, both proved to be males. Mr.
Turner (1886) says:

     The males are much devoted to their mates while incubating, and I
     have every reason to believe that the male does the greater part of
     the labor of incubating, as they were the ones generally found
     either on or near the nests. When alighting near the nest either
     sex has the habit of raising its wings perpendicularly and slowly
     folding them, all the while uttering a trilling peep, continued for
     several seconds.

The parents are very devoted to their young, employing the usual tactics
to divert the attention of the intruder, stumbling and fluttering over
the ground, as if both legs and wings were broken. The young leave the
nest as soon as they are strong enough to run, but remain with their
parents until they are fully fledged in their first winter or juvenal
plumage and ready to fly in August.

_Plumages._--The downy young Aleutian resembles, in color pattern, the
young purple sandpiper, but can easily be recognized by its warmer and
richer browns. The upper half of the head is "warm buff," shading off to
"pale buff" on the lores and cheeks and to pure white on the throat and
neck. A median black stripe is broad on the crown, tapering to a point
at the bill; loral and malar black stripes converge at the bill; the
rest of the upper head is spotted or striped with black. The nape is a
mixture of dull buff and dusky. The back, wings, and thighs are
variegated with black, "ochraceous tawny" and "warm buff," everywhere
sprinkled with conspicuous dots, terminal tufts, of buffy white in an
irregular pattern; there is a more or less well-defined black patch in
the center of the back, varying in different individuals, centrally
veiled with "burnt sienna" tips. The entire under parts are pure white.

In the juvenal plumage the center of the crown is blackish brown, with
"ochraceous tawny" edgings; the rest of the crown and nape are "deep
mouse gray"; the feathers of the back are brownish black, broadly edged
with "tawny" or "ochraceous tawny"; the scapulars and all the wing
coverts are deep sepia, broadly edged with colors varying from "tawny"
to buffy white, whitest on the coverts; the under parts are white, with
a broad band of pale buff across the throat and breast; the flanks are
somewhat tinged with the same color; the throat, breast, and flanks are
more or less heavily marked with median dusky streaks. This plumage is
worn through July and part, or all, of August. The postjuvenal molt of
the body plumage begins in some birds about the 1st of August, but in
others not until two or three weeks later. This produces a first winter
plumage similar to that of the adult, but distinguishable by the faded
juvenal wing coverts and a few retained scapulars and tertials.

The partial prenuptial molt of both young birds and adults comes rather
late in the spring, April and May, and involves the body plumage and
some of the wing coverts and scapulars. Adults also have a complete
postnuptial molt, beginning in August and lasting until October. The
winter plumage is similar to that of the purple sandpiper, but it is
conspicuously marked on the breast and flanks with large triangular or
circular spots of dusky, whereas the purple sandpiper usually has a
plain gray breast in winter.

_Food._--Very little seems to be known about the food of the Aleutian
sandpiper, but probably its diet is very similar to that of the purple
sandpiper, which has similar feeding habits. Both species are fond of
frequenting rocky shores and stony beaches, where they seem to be
gleaning food. Doctor Stejneger (1885) has seen them "at low water
eagerly picking up Gammarids among the stones close to the breakers."
Bernard J. Bretherton (1896) writes:

     Large flocks of these birds were seen during February, 1893, but
     were not met with during other winters. They were met with on a low
     sand bar, after a protracted storm which had thrown up millions of
     sand fleas, upon which they were feeding so industriously as to be
     easily approached and to which feast they returned several times,
     even after their ranks had been thinned by raking charges of fine
     shot.

_Behavior._--In many ways the Aleutian sandpiper reminds one of its near
relative, the purple sandpiper, but it is even tamer, less suspicious,
and quieter in its movements. We had plenty of chances to get acquainted
with it in the Aleutian Islands. We met it, and collected the first
specimen of it, on the first island that we landed on, Akun Island, and
after that we saw it on every island we visited, though it was much more
abundant on the more western islands. These bleak islands, with their
forbidding, rocky shores and stony beaches, washed with cold spray or
enveloped in chilly fog, are the summer home of this hardy little "beach
snipe," as it is called by the natives. It moves about so quietly and
deliberately, and its colors match its surroundings so well, that we
were constantly coming upon it unexpectedly. It was usually so intent on
feeding that it paid no attention to passers-by; it was often necessary
to back off to a reasonable distance before shooting one, and I shot
several with squib charges in an auxiliary barrel. It is the tamest and
most unsuspicious shore bird I have ever seen. On this point Mr. Turner
(1886) says:

     It is not at all shy, depending more on its color to hide by
     squatting among the crevices of the dark lava rocks and thus be
     unobserved. When cautiously approached, these birds generally run
     to the highest part of the rock or bowlder which they are on, then
     huddle together before taking flight the moment after. This habit
     allows them to be nearly all killed at a single discharge of the
     gun. The native boys, having observed this habit of these birds,
     procure a club about two feet long, and when the birds huddle
     together before taking flight the club is hurled in such manner as
     to sweep all the birds off the rock. This manner of procuring these
     birds is practiced by the western Aleut boys to a great degree.

Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) writes:

     A pair were found feeding on a series of bare, jagged rocks, over
     which the spray flew in a dense cloud as every wave beat at the
     foot of the rocky shore. I shot one of them, and the survivor
     merely flew up and stood eyeing me silently from the top of a low
     cliff 20 or 25 feet overhead until it, too, fell a victim. Later in
     the day another was seen near the border of a small lake in the
     interior of the island. It ran nimbly on before me, over the mossy
     hillocks, stopping every few feet and half turning to watch my
     movements, just as a spotted sandpiper would do under the
     circumstances. When driven to take wing, it flew a short distance,
     with the same peculiar down-curved wings and style of flight as has
     the spotted sandpiper.

Hamilton M. Laing (1925) says that "on one occasion one was seen to swim
nimbly from one rock to another rather than fly."

_Voice._--Except on its breeding grounds, we considered the Aleutian
sandpiper a very quiet and silent bird. Its twittering flight song is a
part of the nuptial ceremony, and it was only on its nesting grounds
that we heard the loud, musical, flutelike, whistling notes so
suggestive of the melodious calls of the upland plover. Doctor Nelson
(1887) describes what may be the same notes, as follows:

     While on the wing it uttered a rather low but clear and musical
     _tweo-tweo-tweo_. When feeding it had a note something like a call
     of the _Colaptes auratus_, and which may be represented by the
     syllables _clu-clu-clu_.

Mr. Clark (1910) also says:

     The cry is loud and clear, bearing a striking resemblance to the
     call of the flicker.

_Field marks._--In winter the Aleutian sandpiper might easily be
mistaken for a purple sandpiper, which it closely resembles in
appearance, haunts, and behavior, but the winter ranges of the two
species are widely separated. From the Pribilof sandpiper it differs in
being decidedly smaller, and in summer it is much darker, with less
rufous above and more black below.

_Fall._--The Aleutian sandpiper withdraws in the fall from the northern
portions of its breeding range in Alaska and Siberia, and it may be that
the birds which breed farthest north are the ones which migrate farthest
south to spend the winter, for the species is resident throughout the
year in the Aleutian Islands. In the Norton Sound region it evidently
occurs only as a migrant from northern Alaska and Siberia. Doctor Nelson
(1887) says:

     Early in August, however, I was pleased to find it abundant in
     parties of from five to thirty or forty about outlying islets and
     along rugged portions of the shore. During each of the four
     succeeding seasons the same experience was repeated, and the last
     of July or first of August I was certain to find the numbers of
     them in the situations mentioned, where earlier in the season not
     one was to be found. They always remained until the middle of
     October, when the beaches became covered with ice and they were
     forced to seek a milder climate. The 1st of October, as the first
     snowstorms begin, these birds desert the more exposed islets and
     beaches for the inner bays and sandy beaches, where their habits
     are like those of other sandpipers in similar situations.

_Winter._--This hardy sandpiper is well known to winter regularly and
abundantly in the Aleutian and Commander Islands. According to notes
received from D. E. Brown, it reaches the coast of Washington as early
as October 1, where it spends the winter in Grays Harbor and Jefferson
Counties and on the outer islands. Carl Lien's notes, from Destruction
Island, give it as a "common winter resident. A flock of probably 50
spend the winter. Nearly always found in company with turnstones and
surfbirds, and together with these birds confine themselves entirely to
the reefs."

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--The northeastern corner of Siberia, west coast of Alaska and
adjacent islands, including the Aleutians, south (rarely) to
northwestern Oregon.

_Breeding range._--The breeding range of the Aleutian sandpiper extends
north to eastern Siberia (Emma Harbor) and Alaska (Cape Prince of
Wales). East to Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales, Colville River, and Port
Moller); and the Shumagin Islands. South to the Shumagin Islands; the
western part of the Alaskan Peninsula (Muller Bay and Morzhovia Bay);
and the Aleutian Islands (Unalaska, Atka, Tanaga, Kiska, Agutta, and
Attu Islands). West to the Aleutian Islands (Attu) and eastern Siberia
(Emma Harbor). The species also has been detected in summer at St.
Lawrence and St. Matthew Islands and at other points on the mainland of
Alaska (Point Dall, Pastolik, St. Michael, Nulato, and Port Clarence).

_Winter range._--Resident throughout much of its range, but also south
in winter, along the Alaskan and British Columbian coasts and as far as
Washington (Destruction Island).

_Migration._--The migrations performed by the Aleutian sandpiper are
very limited. In the vicinity of St. Michael, Alaska, flocks will appear
as early as August 15, occasionally remaining until October 15. They
have been noted on the Asiatic side of Bering Sea at Providence Bay in
June, at East Cape in July, at Plover Bay in September, and on Bering
Island as late as October 24.

Spring migrants have been observed to reach Point Etolin, Alaska, as
early as April 8 and Bering Island April 24. Spring departures from the
southern part of the winter range have been noted as late as:
Destruction Island, May 1; Forrester Island, May 7; and Admiralty
Island, May 14. An early fall arrival at Craig, Alaska, is August 6 and
at Destruction Island October 1.

_Casual records._--This species has been collected or observed outside
of its known normal range on a few occasions: Washington, Point
Chehalis, November 6, 1917, and Dungeness Spit, March 4, 1916; Oregon,
Cape Meares, December 31, 1912, and March 18, 1913; these may prove to
be regular winter resorts.

_Egg dates._--Alaska: 18 records, June 3 to July 24; 9 records, June 15
to 22.

PISOBIA ACUMINATA (Horsfield)

SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER

HABITS

This is a bird which few of us have been privileged to see. From its
summer home in northeastern Siberia it migrates south to Japan, the
Malay Archipelago, Australia, and New Zealand. On the fall migration it
visits the coast of northwestern Alaska frequently, perhaps regularly,
and often commonly. It occurs regularly, sometimes abundantly, on the
Pribilof Islands in the fall. In southern Alaska and farther south it
occurs only as a rare straggler. A. W. Anthony (1922) took a young male
near San Diego, California, on September 16, 1921.

Some European writers have called it the Siberian pectoral sandpiper,
which its resemblance to our common bird of that name seems to warrant.
It is so much like our pectoral sandpiper in appearance, behavior, and
haunts, that it has probably often been overlooked; it may therefore
occur on our northwestern coast much oftener than we suspect.

_Nesting._--The sharp-tailed sandpiper is supposed to breed in Mongolia
and eastern Siberia; it has been seen and collected on its breeding
grounds in northeastern Siberia, Cape Wankarem, the Chuckchi Peninsula,
and the Kolyma Delta, but apparently its nest has never been found and
its eggs are entirely unknown.

_Plumages._--The downy young is entirely unknown. This sandpiper is
handsomely and richly colored in any plumage, but the rich buff and
bright browns of the juvenal plumage are particularly noticeable. The
body plumage is molted in the fall, the wings and tail in late winter,
and the body plumage is partially molted again in the spring. The
plumages are well described in the manuals.

_Food._--Preble and McAtee (1923) report on the food of this species, as
follows:

     Eight well-filled and one nearly empty stomach of the sharp-tailed
     sandpiper are available to illustrate the food habits. This number
     is too small to furnish reliable results, and too great dependence
     must not be placed in data as to the relative ranks of food items
     as here stated. The percentages found for the limited material,
     then, are flies (Diptera), 39.1 per cent; crustaceans, 18.1 per
     cent; mollusks, 14.2 per cent; caddisflies, 11.8 per cent; beetles,
     8.8 per cent; Hymenoptera, 1.8 per cent; and vegetable matter, 3.9
     per cent. Mr. Hanna notes that flocks of this species frequent the
     seal-killing fields, feeding on fly maggots, a statement receiving
     confirmation from stomach analysis.

_Behavior._--Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) tells us a little about the habits
of this rare species, as follows:

     They were nearly always associated with _maculata_, whose habits
     they shared to a great extent. When congregated about their feeding
     places they united into flocks of from ten into fifty, but single
     birds were frequently flushed from and they were rarely shy. On
     October 1, 1880, they were found scattered singly over the marsh,
     and arose 30 to 40 yards in advance, and made off with a twisting
     flight, uttering at the same time a short, soft, metallic _pleep,
     pleep,_ and pursuing an erratic, circuitous flight for a time they
     generally returned and settled near the spot whence they started.
     On the shore of Siberia, near North Cape, we found these birds very
     common, scattered over damp grass flats near the coast, the 1st of
     August, 1881. The ground was covered with reindeer tracks, and
     among these the sharp-tailed snipe were seen seeking their food.
     They were very unsuspicious and allowed us to pass close to them,
     or circled close about us. From their movements and other
     circumstances I judged that this district formed part of their
     breeding grounds, whence they reach the neighboring coast of Alaska
     in fall.

_Field marks._--The sharp-tailed sandpiper most closely resembles the
pectoral sandpiper, but it can often be recognized in the field by the
more ruddy color of the upper parts. Most of the feathers of the
shoulders, scapulars and secondaries are broadly edged with chestnut;
these edgings are paler in winter. The bright chestnut crown, streaked
with black, and the ruddy brown suffusion on the chest and sides, might
be recognized under favorable circumstances.

_Fall._--Not much seems to be known about the spring migration, but the
fall migration is fairly well marked. Doctor Nelson (1887) says:

     They usually make their first appearance on the shore of Norton
     Sound the last of August, and in a few days become very common.
     They sometimes remain up to the 12th of October, and I have seen
     them searching for food along the tide line when the ground was
     covered with 2 inches of snow. When feeding along the edges of the
     tide-creeks they may almost be knocked over with a paddle, and when
     a flock is fired into it returns again and again.

It is a regular fall migrant in the Pribilof Islands, between August 17
and November 9, where it associates in large flocks with the pectoral
sandpiper on the seal-killing fields.

Doctor Stejneger (1885) writes:

     Of this species I only obtained young specimens on Bering Island
     during the autumnal migration of 1882. From the middle of September
     and during the following three weeks they were observed both on the
     tundra near the great lake and on the rocky beach of the ocean
     searching for Gammarids. They were very shy and mostly single or in
     small families. Larger flocks were never seen.

From the Commander Islands the main flight continues on down the Asiatic
coast, through Japan, China, and the Malay Archipelago, to New Zealand
and Australia, where it spends the winter.

_Winter._--W. B. Alexander writes to me that this is--

     One of the commonest northern breeding birds which visits
     Australia. My earliest record of their arrival is August 31, 1925,
     at Cairns, North Queensland, and my latest record April 21, 1922,
     at Rockhampton, Queensland. From September to March they are to be
     found in small flocks throughout the coastal districts of Australia
     on the shores of estuaries and lakes and in fresh-water swamps. In
     October, 1922, I saw a flock of four on the open country near a dam
     on Alice Downs Station, near Blackall, central Queensland, a
     locality about 350 miles from the coast. Mr. D. W. Gaukrodger
     subsequently secured an excellent photograph of three of these
     birds at the same dam.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--The sharp-tailed sandpiper breeds in the northeastern part of
Asia--so far as known, in northeastern Siberia--wintering south to New
Guinea, Tonga Islands, Australia, and New Zealand. Occurs in migration
in Kamchatka, China, and Japan.

During fall migration it is of regular though rare occurrence in Alaska
(Hotham Inlet, September 1, 1880; Port Clarence, September 9, 1880;
Nome, September 2 to 16, 1910; St. Michael, September 16, 1877, August
29 and September 11, 1879, September 18, 21, and 24, 1899; Bethel,
September 30 and October 1, 1914; St. Paul Island, August 17, 1897,
September 7 and 13, 1910, September 14 and 20 and October 12, 1914; St.
George Island, October 3, 1899; and Valdez, September 18, 1908).

_Casual records._--The species is accidental in British Columbia
(Massett, December 27, 1897, and Comox, October 4, 1903); Washington
(mouth of the Nooksack River, September 2, 1892); England (Breydon,
Norfolk, August, 1892, and Yarmouth, September, 1848 [?]); and the
Hawaiian Islands (Laysan [specimen in museum at Bremen], a second
specimen near Honolulu, a third specimen was collected on Maui
[Henshaw], and Bartsch secured two specimens and saw others on Sand
Island, November 8, 1907). One was taken near San Diego, Calif., on
September 16, 1921.

PISOBIA MACULATA (Vieillot)

PECTORAL SANDPIPER

HABITS

This familiar sandpiper is well known as a migrant throughout most of
North America, especially east of the Rocky Mountains, as it travels on
its long journeys between the Arctic tundras, where it breeds, and its
winter home in southern South America. It is more popular among gunners
than the other small sandpipers, to whom it is known by several names.
It is called "jack snipe" on account of its resemblance in appearance
and habits to the Wilson snipe. It deserves the name, "grass bird,"
because it usually frequents grassy meadows. The name, "creaker,"
"creeker," or "Krieker," may have been derived from its reedy notes,
from its haunts along the muddy banks of creeks, or from the German word
_Kriecher_, on account of its crouching habits.

_Spring._--The northward migration must start from Argentina in
February, for it reaches Texas and Louisiana early in March, and I have
seen it in Florida as early as March 14. On the other hand it has been
taken at Mendoza, Argentina, as late as March 26. The main flight passes
through the United States during March and April, but I have seen it in
Texas as late as May 17. During May the migration is at its height in
Canada and before the end of that month it reaches its summer home.
William Rowan tells me that it is always very abundant in Alberta during
May and that the males come alone at first, then mixed flocks, and
finally only females. H. B. Conover writes to me that "these sandpipers
seemed to arrive at Point Dall (Alaska) all at once. Up to May 20 none
had been seen, but on the 21st they were found to be common all over the
tundra. Immediately on arrival the males started their booming
courtship." John Murdoch (1885) says that, at Point Barrow:

     They arrive about the end of May or early in June, and frequent the
     small ponds and marshy portions of the tundra along the shore,
     sometimes associated with other small waders, especially with the
     buff-breasted sandpipers on the high banks of Nunava. Early in the
     season they are frequently in large-sized flocks feeding together
     around and in the Eskimo village at Cape Smythe, but later become
     thoroughly scattered all over the tundra.

_Courtship._--The wonderful and curious courtship of the pectoral
sandpiper has been well described by several writers. Dr. E. W. Nelson's
(1887) pleasing and graphic account of it is well worth quoting in full;
he writes:

     The night of May 24 I lay wrapped in my blanket, and from the
     raised flap of the tent looked out over as dreary a cloud-covered
     landscape as can be imagined. The silence was unbroken save by the
     tinkle and clinking of the disintegrating ice in the river, and at
     intervals by the wild notes of some restless loon, which arose in a
     hoarse reverberating cry and died away in a strange gurgling sound.
     As my eyelids began to droop and the scene to become indistinct,
     suddenly a low, hollow, booming note struck my ear and sent my
     thoughts back to a spring morning in northern Illinois, and to the
     loud vibrating tones of the prairie chickens. Again the sound arose
     nearer and more distinct, and with an effort I brought myself back
     to the reality of my position and, resting upon one elbow,
     listened. A few seconds passed and again arose the note; a moment
     later and, gun in hand, I stood outside the tent. The open flat
     extended away on all sides, with apparently not a living creature
     near. Once again the note was repeated close by, and a glance
     revealed its author. Standing in the thin grasses 10 or 15 yards
     from me, with its throat inflated until it was as large as the rest
     of the bird, was a male _A. maculata_. The succeeding days afforded
     opportunity to observe the bird as it uttered its singular notes
     under a variety of situations and at various hours of the day or
     during the light Arctic night. The note is deep, hollow, and
     resonant, but at the same time liquid and musical, and may be
     represented by a repetition of the syllables _too-u, too-u, too-u,
     too-u, too-u, too-u, too-u, too-u_. Before the bird utters these
     notes it fills its esophagus with air to such an extent that the
     breast and throat is inflated to twice or more its natural size,
     and the great air sac thus formed gives the peculiar resonant
     quality to the note.

     The skin of the throat and breast becomes very flabby and loose at
     this season, and its inner surface is covered with small globular
     masses of fat. When not inflated, the skin loaded with this extra
     weight and with a slightly serous suffusion which is present hangs
     down in a pendulous flap or fold exactly like a dewlap, about an
     inch and a half wide. The esophagus is very loose and becomes
     remarkably soft and distensible, but is easily ruptured in this
     state, as I found by dissection. In the plate accompanying this
     report the extent and character of this inflation, unique at least
     among American waders, is shown. The bird may frequently be seen
     running along the ground close to the female, its enormous sac
     inflated, and its head drawn back and the bill pointing directly
     forward, or, filled with spring-time vigor, the bird flits with
     slow but energetic wingstrokes close along the ground, its head
     raised high over the shoulders and the tail hanging almost directly
     down. As it thus flies it utters a succession of the hollow,
     booming notes, which have a strange ventriloquial quality. At times
     the male rises 20 or 30 yards in the air and inflating its throat
     glides down to the ground with its sac hanging below, as is shown
     in the accompanying plate. Again he crosses back and forth in front
     of the female, puffing his breast out and bowing from side to side,
     running here and there, as if intoxicated with passion. Whenever he
     pursues his love-making, his rather low but pervading note swells
     and dies in musical cadences, which form a striking part of the
     great bird chorus heard at this season in the north.

Mr. Conover (notes) adds the following:

     When the male rises in the air to boom, in sailing to the ground he
     throws his wings up over his back, much in the same manner as tame
     pigeons when descending from a height; also a male which flew by
     with pouch extended was noticed to jerk his head up and down as he
     gave his call. The bill was partly open and he gave the appearance
     of swallowing air to inflate his throat. As it is the esophagus
     which is inflated and not the windpipe, this in all probability is
     what he does.

S. A. Buturlin (1907) gives a somewhat different account of it, as
observed by him in Siberia, as follows:

     One would every now and then stretch both wings right over its
     back, and afterwards commence a grotesque sort of dance, hopping
     alternately on each leg; another would inflate its gular pouch and
     run about, crouching down to the ground, or would fly up to about a
     hundred feet in the air, then inflate its pouch and descend slowly
     and obliquely to the ground on extended wings. All these
     performances were accompanied by a strange hollow sound, not very
     loud when near, but audible at some distance, even as far as 500
     yards. These notes are very difficult to locate, and vary according
     to the distance. When near they are tremulous booming sounds
     something like the notes of a frog, and end in clear sounds like
     those caused by the bursting of water bubbles in a copper vessel.

_Nesting._--Mr. Murdoch (1885) says:

     The nest is always built in the grass, with a decided preference
     for high and dry localities like the banks of gulleys and streams.
     It was sometimes placed at the edge of a small pool, but always in
     grass and in a dry place, never in the black clay and moss, like
     the plover and buff-breasted sandpipers, or in the marsh, like the
     phalaropes. The nest was like that of the other waders, a
     depression in the ground lined with a little dry grass.

A set in my collection, taken by F. S. Hersey, near St. Michael, Alaska,
was in a slight hollow on the open tundra with no concealment. And a set
in the Herbert Massey collection, taken near Point Barrow by E. A.
McIlhenny, came from "a slight hollow lined with dry grass, in the dry,
gray moss of the tundra."

Herbert W. Brandt in his manuscript notes says:

     The pectoral sandpiper usually chooses for its homesite the upland
     rolling tundra, but an occasional isolated pair was found on the
     dry grass lands of the tide flats. This species builds the most
     substantial of any of the shorebirds nests that we met with at
     Hooper Bay, for even after it was removed from the grassy cavity in
     which it was built the nest would often hold firmly together. The
     birds showed exceptional skill in the concealment of their homes
     and consequently they were very difficult to find for they chose a
     tract where the curly bunch grass grew abundantly and under its
     domed protection they constructed an excavation deep in the moss.
     Here a substantial nest is fashioned of grasses and tediously lined
     or rather filled with small crisp leaves of the low perennial
     plants that there, in a dwarf creeping form, are the only
     representatives of the great inland forests. The dimensions vary
     between the following extremes: Inside diameter 3 to 3-1/2 inches;
     depth 1-3/4 to 2-1/2 inches; and outside depth 3-1/2 to 5 inches.
     We never observed other than the female carrying on the loving
     duties of incubation and seldom indeed was the male even in close
     attendance. The female is very difficult to approach on the nest
     because she invariably leaves it before the ornithologist draws
     near and consequently we spent many hours endeavoring to watch the
     shy bird return to her nest.

The behavior of parent birds about the nests seems to be variable. W.
Sprague Brooks (1915) says:

     On approaching the vicinity of the nest the bird would leave it
     quietly and walk slowly about feeding and showing no excitement
     whatever. This happened several times until I decided to watch the
     bird and see if by any chance she might have a nest. In a short
     time she walked to a bunch of grass a few feet from me and settled
     on the nest. Even while I was packing away the eggs she showed no
     concern. I had precisely the same experience with the other two
     nests.

On the other hand, Alfred M. Bailey (1926) writes:

     On July 3 Hendee flushed a female from a set of four slightly
     incubated eggs. "The nest," he states, "was in a patch of marsh
     grass, similar to the location usually chosen by the phalaropes,
     except that the ground was not wet. The female fluttered away to a
     distance of about 30 feet and went through a remarkable performance
     in her attempt to decoy me from the nest. She crept about among the
     hummocks in a very unbirdlike fashion, uttering all the time a
     mouse-like squeaking."

_Eggs._--Mr. Brandt in his manuscript notes has described the eggs so
well that I can not do better than to quote him, as follows:

     The eggs of the pectoral sandpiper are of particular interest
     because they are perhaps the most beautiful of the many handsome
     shore-bird eggs that are found in the Hooper Bay region. Their rich
     and contrasting colors, their bold splashed markings, and high
     luster make them veritable gems of oological perfection. In all
     nests that came under our observation four eggs constituted the
     complement, and these generally nestled points together amid the
     crisp leafy lining of their birthplace, standing most often at an
     obtuse angle to the horizontal. In outline they range from
     subpyriform to ovate pyriform. The exterior of the shell has a
     smooth, almost polished surface that reflects in many eggs a high
     luster. The ground color varies considerably from dull white to
     "cream buff" and even to "deep olive buff," but in all sets I have
     seen the ground color and markings follow the same shades and types
     in the same set of eggs. The surface markings are bold and
     individual, and appear as if they were daubed with a paint brush.
     These large rich spots are elongated and are placed parallel to the
     long axis of the egg, showing but little tendency to spiral. The
     heaviest markings are at the larger end, often merging into a large
     "chocolate" blotch, and in one case this rich blot of color covered
     more than a fourth of the egg. The color of the markings ranges
     from "walnut brown" and "sepia" to "chocolate" and "blackish
     brown," with "chocolate" the predominating shade. The underlying
     spots are prominent and numerous on some eggs, while on others they
     are almost wanting. They vary from "pearl gray" to "violet gray,"
     with an occasional egg inclined to "Isabella color." In fact, each
     different clutch of eggs exhibits some individual interesting
     peculiarity.

My only set, taken for me by Mr. Hersey, would fit the above description
very well, but it is not particularly handsome. The ground color is dull
white or "pale olive buff," which is more or less evenly marked with
small blotches and spots of "bister" and "bone brown." Mr. Murdoch
(1885) says that they "may be distinguished from those of the
buff-breasted sandpiper, which they closely resemble, by their warmer
color." The measurements of 116 eggs, in the United States National
Museum and in Mr. Brandt's collection, average 36.5 by 25 millimeters;
the eggs showing the four extremes measure =38.5= by 25, 38 by =27=,
=34= by 24.9, and 35.5 by =24.5= millimeters.

_Young._--Mr. Conover writes to me as follows:

     The incubation period seems to run from 21 to 23 days. A nest found
     May 31 with the complete set of four eggs was hatched on the
     morning of June 21. Another nest containing four eggs, from which
     the old bird was flushed, was found on June 2 and hatched on June
     25. The first young were found on June 21. Contrary to their habits
     when there were only eggs in the nest, the mothers now showed great
     concern for their young. At one time Murie caught some newly
     hatched young, and holding his hand containing them extended on the
     ground, induced the old bird to come up and brood the chicks. She
     was so tame that he caught and banded her without difficulty. The
     male seems to take no part on the incubation or care of the young.
     He was often seen to join a hen driven from the nest, but only for
     purposes of courtship, as he would start booming immediately and
     chase her about. Before the eggs began to hatch, male birds seemed
     to disappear from the tundra. There was never more than one bird
     seen with the young. Thirty days seemed to be about the time
     necessary for the chicks to mature, as by July 20 fully fledged
     young were seen commonly about the tundra.

Mr. Buturlin (1907) says:

     When I approached the breeding ground the old birds flew to meet
     me, one after another, and wheeled around uttering low tremulous
     notes of various kinds. These calls were evidently meant for the
     young and had different meanings. When the female is with them (and
     you must sit watching for an hour or more to observe this), the
     little ones are somewhat shy and take refuge under her. If you make
     the slightest movement she flies up, uttering the usual _kirip_,
     and kicks the young forwards, never backwards, until they tumble
     head over heels 5 or 6 inches away. There they lie as if dead, but
     with open eyes, and the mother flies around uttering a low
     tremulous _kirip, kirip, trip, trrrrrr_, evidently meaning "lie
     quite still." Then she alights near the young and runs about
     feigning lameness, while trying in every way to make you attempt to
     capture her. If, however, you keep quite quiet she becomes
     reassured, approaches near to where her young are, and utters with
     tender modulations, _day-day-day, day-day-day_, which means
     evidently "all right, come here." Then the chicks commence to chirp
     _peep, peep, peeyp_, and run to their mother. On one occasion I
     observed all this at a distance of about 10 paces, and once I was
     only about 3 paces from them. The downy young know their mother's
     call _day-day-day_ so well that on one occasion a young bird, which
     I was taking home in my butterfly net, when it heard a female call
     quite close to me, climbed out of the net to rejoin her.

Mr. Brandt in his manuscript notes writes:

     The potential energy stored up in the small richly colored eggs of
     this northern sandpiper is almost beyond comprehension. The downy
     chicks, as soon as they are out of the shell, show wonderful
     activity. When they are but 30 minutes old, their apparently slight
     legs carry them over the ground with great rapidity. They know at
     birth how to hide among the hummocks and vegetation so as to defy
     the sharpest eyes. In three weeks they are awing and six weeks
     later they are off on their long journey to the south, crossing
     mighty mountain ridges, great stretches of land and of sea.

According to W. H. Hudson (1920), the pectoral sandpiper arrives in the
La Plata region, in southern South America, about the end of August, and
he writes:

     Among these first comers there are some young birds, so immature,
     with threads of yellow down still adhering to the feathers of the
     head, and altogether weak in appearance, that one can scarcely
     credit the fact that so soon after being hatched they have actually
     performed the stupendous journey from the northern extremity of the
     North American continent to the Buenos-Ayrean pampas.

_Plumages._--The young pectoral in down is a beauty and is distinctively
colored. The forehead, back to the eyes, lores, sides of the head and
neck, and the breast are from "cinnamon buff" to "cream buff," paling to
white or grayish white on the throat and belly. There is a broad, black,
median stripe from the crown to the bill, a narrow, black loral stripe,
which is joined by another, still narrower, malar stripe under the eye,
extending to the auriculars; below the ear is a dark-brown spot. In the
center of the crown is a black spot, surrounded by a circle of buffy
white dots; around this the crown is a mixture of black and "burnt
sienna," bordered with buffy white, except in front; and around this
border, or along each side of it, is a narrow stripe of blackish brown
above the buffy superciliary stripe. The nape is grizzly brown, buff,
and whitish. The back, wings, and thighs are variegated with black,
"chestnut," and "burnt sienna," and decorated with small dots of buffy
white in an irregular pattern.

The juvenal plumage is much like that of the summer adult, except that
the feathers of the mantle, scapulars, and the median and lesser wing
coverts are edged with brighter colors, "tawny," "ochraceous-buff," and
creamy white; and the breast is more buffy or yellowish. This plumage is
apparently worn all through the fall and winter or until the first
prenuptial molt in February and March, when the body plumage is renewed.
At the first postnuptial molt, the next summer, the young bird becomes
indistinguishable from the adult, having molted the entire plumage.

Adults have a partial prenuptial molt in the spring, from February to
June, which involves the body plumage, except the back and rump and some
of the scapulars, tertials, and wing coverts. The complete postnuptial
molt of adults is much prolonged; the body molt begins in August, but
the wings are not molted until the bird reaches its winter home,
beginning in October and often lasting until February. Two adult females
taken by Doctor Wetmore (1926) on September 9 in Paraguay "were in worn
breeding plumage with no indication of molt." And one shot in Uruguay
February 8 had renewed all but a few feathers of the entire plumage,
while a male taken the same day was molting its primaries. There is very
little difference between the summer and winter plumages; the feather
edgings of the upper parts are more rufous in summer and more ashy in
winter.

_Food._--According to Preble and McAtee (1923), the contents of 21
well-filled gizzards of this species consisted principally of "flies
(Diptera), 54.5 per cent; amphipods, 22.3 per cent; vegetable matter,
chiefly algae, 10.5 per cent; beetles, 8 per cent; Hymenoptera, 2.1 per
cent; and bugs (Hemiptera), 1.3 per cent." Other things eaten were
mites, spiders, and caddis fly larvae and a few seeds of grass, lupine,
and violet. P. L. Hatch (1892) says that "their food is principally
crickets in spring, interlarded with various dry-land larvae, small
beetles, and ground worms. In the fall the grasshoppers are first
chosen, after which crickets and whatever other insects prevail at this
season." Birds taken by B. S. Bowdish (1902) in Porto Rico had eaten
fiddler crabs. Pectoral sandpipers feed mainly in grassy meadows, more
or less dry, and their food is chiefly insects.

_Behavior._--On the grassy salt meadows, where we usually find it, I
have often been impressed with the resemblance of this sandpiper and the
Wilson snipe, both in appearance and in behavior. It is often found in
wisps or scattered flocks, the individuals widely separated and
crouching in the grass. Often it flushes close at hand with a startling
harsh cry and dashes hurriedly away with a zigzag flight. Sometimes it
flutters away for only a short distance and drops quickly into the
grass. Again it makes a long flight, circling high in the air and then
pitches down suddenly in some distant part of the marsh, or perhaps near
the starting point. Though erratic at first, the flight is swift and
direct when well under way. They sometimes fly in flocks like other
sandpipers, but more often they are flushed singly. They usually flock
by themselves but are sometimes associated, purely fortuitously I
believe, with other species that frequent similar feeding grounds, such
as Wilson snipe, Baird, least or semipalmated sandpipers.

The pectoral sandpiper has another snipelike habit of standing
motionless in the grass, relying on its concealing coloration, where its
striped plumage renders it almost invisible, even in plain sight. It
moves about slowly while feeding, probing in the mud with rapid strokes.
Often it stands perfectly still with its head held high, watching an
intruder; the dark markings on its neck end abruptly on the white
breast, breaking up the outline and helping the bird to fade into the
background. It is occasionally seen swimming across a narrow creek or
channel.

_Voice._--This is a rather noisy bird, especially so on its breeding
ground, and its short, sharp flight notes are quite characteristic of
the "creaker." Mr. Nichols contributes the following good description of
them:

     The notes of the pectoral sandpiper have a reedy character,
     intermediate in tone between the clearer calls of most shore birds
     and the hoarse cry of the Wilson's snipe. This is in keeping with
     its habits. Its characteristic flight note is a loud reedy _kerr_,
     resembling that of the semipalmated sandpiper (_cherk_) more
     closely than any other shore bird call, but recognizably heavier.
     Rarely in flight, the _kerr_ varies into or is replaced by a
     near-whistled _krru_. On being flushed it often has hoarse, hurried
     cheeping notes, analogous with similar harsher notes of the
     Wilson's snipe. When in a flock of its own kind, alert and on the
     move, it has a short, snappy flocking note, a chorus of _tcheps_ or
     _chips_. To my ear its flushing note is more or less a combination
     of flight note and flocking note, and it may reasonably be so. The
     flocking note communicates alertness to near-by members of a flock;
     the flight note is used more emphatically by birds separated from
     their companions or in active flight and disposed for
     companionship, whereas on being flushed the bird is signaling to
     possible companions; but as it has been feeding singly, concealed
     from such others as there may be by the grass, their distance is
     uncertain.

_Field marks._--The pale-gray, almost white, tail with its dark, almost
black, center and rump, is conspicuous in flight; a pale stripe in the
wing is less noticeable. The snipelike colors of the upper parts, the
dark, heavily streaked breast, contrasted sharply with the white under
parts, and the short olive-yellow legs are good field marks when the
bird is standing. The males are much larger than the females, which is
unusual among shore birds.

_Fall._--Regarding their departure from their breeding grounds, Murdoch
(1885) says:

     After the breeding season, they keep very quiet and retired, like
     the rest of the waders, and the adults appear to slip quietly away
     without collecting into flocks, as soon as the young are able to
     take care of themselves. As soon as the young have assumed the
     complete fall plumage, that is about the 10th of August, they
     gather in large flocks with the other young waders, especially
     about the small ponds on the high land below Cape Smythe, and stay
     for several days before they take their departure for the South.
     Stray birds remain as late as the first week of September.

On the New England coast the pectoral is both an early and a late
migrant; a few adults sometimes appear in July and more come in August;
but the main flight, mostly young birds, comes in September and October;
they are often abundant in the latter month and I have seen them as late
as October 31. When with us it is seldom seen on the sandy flats or
beaches, but frequents the wet, fresh and salt meadows, preferably where
the grass has been cut and which after a rain are covered with shallow
pools of water. Here and along the margins of marshy creeks are its
favorite feeding grounds. It does not decoy well and is no longer
considered a game bird, but it has been popular with sportsmen for its
gamy qualities and for the excellence of its flesh.

There is a marked southeastward trend in the fall migration of this
species; from its breeding grounds in northern Alaska and northeastern
Siberia its main flight seems to be towards the Atlantic coast of the
United States; it is not abundant and rather irregular on the Pacific
coast south of Alaska; it is common at times in the interior of Canada
and usually abundant in New England. It occasionally occurs in enormous
numbers in Bermuda and seems to be always rare in Florida; these facts
would seem to indicate an ocean route to South America.

_Winter._--The winter home of the pectoral sandpiper is in southern
South America. Arthur H. Holland (1891) says that in the Argentine
Republic, it is "usually found in marshy land with long water weeds
abounding, frequenting the same spot for weeks together." Between
September and March 26, Doctor Wetmore (1926) recorded it as "fairly
common" at various places in Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. It
evidently spends over half the year in its winter home and makes very
rapid flights to and from its Arctic breeding grounds, where it makes a
short visit of about two months.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Northeastern Siberia, and North and South America; accidental
in the Hawaiian Islands and the British Isles.

_Breeding range._--The pectoral sandpiper breeds mainly on the Arctic
coasts of Alaska and Mackenzie. North to Siberia (Kolyma Delta); Alaska
(Cape Lisburne, Cape Smythe, Point Barrow, Colville delta, Collinson
Point, Barter Island, and Demarcation Point); Yukon (Herschel Island);
northeastern Mackenzie (Cambridge Bay); and northeastern Manitoba (York
Factory). East to northeastern Manitoba (York Factory). South to
Manitoba (York Factory); Mackenzie (Clinton-Colden Lake and Lac de
Gras); and Alaska (Tacotna Forks and Hooper Bay). West to Alaska (Hooper
Bay, Fort Clarence, Point Hope, and Cape Lisburne); and northeastern
Siberia (Kolyma Delta). It has also been reported in summer at Fort
Anderson and Bernard Harbor, Mackenzie, and in northwestern Greenland
(Cape Hatherton).

Summer occurrence outside the range above outlined are Keewatin (Cape
Eskimo); Manitoba (Button Bay); southwestern Alaska (Nushagak); and
northeastern Siberia (Cape Serdze, and Nijni Kolymsk).

_Winter range._--South America. North to Ecuador (near Quito); Bolivia
(Falls of the Madeira, San Luis, and Caiza); and Paraguay (Colonia
Risso). East to Uruguay (Santa Elena); and Argentina (Buenos Aires, La
Plata, Barracas, Chubut Valley, Port Desire, and Colonia Rouquand).
South and west to Argentina (Colonia Rouquand). West also to Chile
(Santiago, Huasco, Antofagasta, Atacama, and Tarapaca); Peru (Chorillos
and Junin); and Ecuador (near Quito).

_Spring migration._--Early dates of arrival are: Florida, Fort De Soto,
February 22, and Orange Hammock, February 25; Alabama, Greensboro, March
20; South Carolina, Frogmore, March 20; North Carolina, Raleigh, March
21; District of Columbia, Washington, March 26; Pennsylvania, Carlisle,
March 28, Beaver, April 1, and Harrisburg, April 7; New York,
Canandaigua, April 14, Buffalo, April 18, Gaines, May 5, and Orient, May
7; Massachusetts, Thompson's Island, March 30, Monomoy Island, April 11,
and Dennis, April 16; Maine, Scarboro, April 13; Quebec, Quebec, May 2;
Louisiana, Lake Borgne, March 12, New Orleans, March 18, and Baton Rouge
Parish, March 19; Mississippi, Biloxi, February 28; Arkansas, Glenwood,
March 27; Kentucky, Bowling Green, April 29; Missouri, St. Louis, March
2, Warrenburg, March 11, Fayette, March 16, and Independence, March 18;
Illinois, Englewood, March 9, Rantoul, March 14, Mount Carmel, March 15,
Canton, March 26, and Chicago, March 29; Indiana, Bloomington, March 15,
Terre Haute, March 17, Bicknell, March 18, and Greencastle, March 22;
Ohio, Columbus, March 1, New Bremen, March 24, Columbus, March 25,
Oberlin, March 25, Cincinnati, March 28, and Youngstown, March 31;
Michigan, Ann Arbor, April 8, and Detroit, April 12; Ontario, Ottawa,
April 27, and Fort Williams, May 10; Iowa, Keokuk, March 14, La Porte,
March 25, Sigourney, March 26, and Des Moines, March 31; Wisconsin,
Milwaukee, March 26, and Madison, March 31; Minnesota, Heron Lake, April
1, Hutchinson, April 5, and Wilder, April 6; Texas, Santa Maria,
February 28, Houston, March 7, and Hidalgo, March 16; Oklahoma, Ponca
City, March 31; Kansas, Topeka, March 29, and McPherson, April 9;
Nebraska, Lincoln, March 10; South Dakota, Sioux Falls, April 10, and
Forestburg, April 20; North Dakota, Charlson, April 27; Manitoba, Pilot
Mound, May 1, Reaburn, May 9, and Margaret, May 9; Saskatchewan, Lake
Johnston, May 9; Mackenzie, Sturgeon River, May 12, Fort Providence, May
14, Fort Simpson, May 16, and Fort Resolution, May 19; Colorado, Denver,
April 21; Montana, Fergus County, April 22; Washington, Menlo, April 1;
Yukon, Forty-mile, May 16, and Dawson, May 19; and Alaska, Bethel, May
4, St. Michael, May 15, Demarcation Point, May 23, Kowak River, May 27,
and Point Barrow, May 30.

Late dates of spring departure are: Costa Rica, Buenos Aires de Terrabe,
May 29, and San Jose, May 19; Florida, Fort De Soto, May 20;
Pennsylvania, Doylestown, May 27; New Jersey, Elizabeth, May 30; New
York, Canandaigua, May 24; Massachusetts, near Boston, June 3;
Louisiana, New Orleans, May 20; Mississippi, Bay St. Louis, May 10;
Arkansas, Arkansas City, May 15; Kentucky, Bowling Green, May 11;
Missouri, Lake Taney Como, May 7, St. Louis, May 11, and Columbia, May
15; Illinois, Elgin, May 12, Addison, May 17, La Grange, May 17, Havana,
May 24, and Chicago, June 18; Indiana, Greencastle, May 4, Lyons, May 6,
Crawfordsville, May 8, and Bloomington, May 9; Ohio, Tiffin, May 15,
Oberlin, May 20, Columbus, May 21, and Youngstown, May 24; Michigan,
Detroit, May 13, Hillsdale, May 17, and Ann Arbor, May 19; Ontario,
Ottawa, May 25; Iowa, Lake Okoboji, May 27, Emmetsburg, May 28, Sioux
City, May 30, and Forest City, May 31; Wisconsin, Elkhorn, May 14, and
Madison, May 19; Minnesota, Heron Lake, May 16, Minneapolis, May 18,
Hutchinson, May 19, and Hallock, May 28; Texas, Sweetwater, May 8,
Corpus Christi, May 11, and Decatur, May 19; Kansas, Fort Riley, May 24,
and Onaga, May 24; Nebraska, Valentine, May 17, and Neligh, May 26;
South Dakota, Vermilion, May 12, and Sioux Falls, June 11; North Dakota,
Charlson, May 11; Manitoba, Winnipeg, May 24, and Shoal Lake, June 2;
Montana, Big Sandy, May 18; and Washington, Fort Steilacoom, May 5.

_Fall migration._--Early dates of fall arrivals are: British Columbia,
Okanagan Landing, July 16; Washington, Tacoma, August 17; California,
Redwood City, August 22; Montana, Sweetgrass Hills, August 11; Wyoming,
Yellowstone Park, July 19; Colorado, Denver, July 28; Mackenzie, Fort
Wrigley, July 19; Saskatchewan, Milk River, July 16, and Big Stick
Lake, July 18; Manitoba, Moosejaw, July 7; North Dakota, Charlson, July
20; South Dakota, Forestburg, July 8, Huron, July 15; Nebraska,
Valentine, August 8; Texas, Brownsville, August 2, Tivoli, August 8;
Minnesota, Minneapolis, July 15, Lanesboro, July 18, and St. Vincent,
July 24; Wisconsin, Madison, July 22, North Freedom, July 25, and
Racine, July 30; Iowa, Marshalltown, July 8, and Wall Lake, July 23;
Ontario, Toronto, July 14, and Todmorden, July 23; Michigan, Detroit,
July 14, and Charity Islands, July 27; Ohio, Dayton, July 20, Bay Point,
July 24, Painesville, July 25, and North Lima, July 27; Illinois,
Chicago, July 2, and La Grange, July 27; Mississippi, Bay St. Louis,
July 15, and Beauvoir, July 26; Nova Scotia, Digby, July 26; New
Brunswick, Scotch Lake, August 9; Maine, Pittsfield, July 26;
Massachusetts, Marthas Vineyard, July 11; New York, Syracuse, July 2,
Orient, July 4, Rochester, July 10, and East Hampton, July 11; New
Jersey, Elizabeth, July 14, and Camden, August 16; Pennsylvania, Beaver,
August 6; District of Columbia, Washington, August 10; Virginia,
Chincoteague, August 1; South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, July 21, and
Frogmore, August 1; Alabama, Leighton, July 24; Florida, Fort De Soto,
July 25, and Key West, July 26; Bermuda, Penistons Pond, August 3;
Bahama Islands, Fortune Island, August 5; Porto Rico, Guayanilla, August
24; West Indies, Barbados, August 16, Guadeloupe, September 2, and St.
Croix, September 14; Lower California, San Jose del Cabo, September 2;
Guatemala, Duenas, September 2; Costa Rica, San Jose, September 7; and
Colombia, Santa Marta, September 14.

Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska, St. George Island, October 3,
Unalaska, October 5, St. Paul Island, October 8, and Nushagak, October
15; British Columbia, Comox, October 15, Chilliwak, October 19, and
Okanagan Landing, November 5; Washington, Nisqually Flats, November 6,
and Simiahmoo, November 1; Oregon, Cold Springs Bird Reserve, October
27; California, Oakland, October 8; Lower California, San Jose del Cabo,
October 24; Costa Rica, La Estrella de Cartago, November 5; Montana,
Flathead Lake, October 20, and Terry, October 21; Idaho, Deer Flat,
November 1; Colorado, Barr, October 5; Mackenzie, Slave River, September
29, and Blackwater, October 7; Manitoba, Winnipeg, October 18, and
Winnipeg, October 29; South Dakota Wall Lake, October 14, and Sioux
Falls, November 5; Nebraska, Lincoln, November 4; Minnesota, Hallock,
October 16, and St. Vincent, October 25; Wisconsin, Madison, October 11;
Iowa, Marshalltown, November 18, and Keokuk, November 24; Ontario,
London, October 16, Toronto, October 27, and Ottawa, November 5;
Michigan, Hillsdale, October 6, Bay City, October 21, and Detroit,
October 29; Ohio, Youngstown, November 5, Dayton, November 18, and
Columbus, November 28; Indiana, Lafayette; October 5, and Bicknell,
November 1; Illinois, Chicago, October 3, and Lawrenceville, November
13; Quebec, Montreal, November 1, Quebec, November 10, and Anticosti
Island, November 12; Maine, Lewiston, October 13, and Pittsfield,
November 10; Massachusetts, Lynn, October 28, Harvard, October 30, and
Monomoy Island, November 1; New York, Long Beach, November 7, Keuka,
November 12, and Branchport, November 23; New Jersey, Camden, November
8; Pennsylvania, Erie, October 31, and Carlisle, November 2; District of
Columbia, Anacostia, November 1; North Carolina, Raleigh, November 15;
Florida, Lake Jackson, November 22, and Palma Sola, November 29; and
Bermuda, St. George, October 9.

_Casual records._--The pectoral sandpiper has been taken twice in the
Hawaiian Islands, Koahualu, August 6, 1900, and October 14, 1900; once
at Hopedale, Labrador; and several times in Greenland, in summer and
fall. Observed in Labrador, Rigolet, June 24 to July 8, 1882, and Davis
Inlet, July 18, 1883. In Europe it has apparently been detected only in
the British Isles, where there are several records from Scotland and
Ireland and the southern counties of England.

_Egg dates._--Alaska: 16 records, May 27 to July 3; 8 records, June 2 to
18. Arctic Canada: 3 records, June 10 to 30.

PISOBIA FUSCICOLLIS (Vieillot)

WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER

HABITS

The white-rumped, or Bonaparte, sandpiper is a great traveller; it
breeds in a limited area on the Arctic coast of North America and
winters in extreme southern South America.

_Spring._--From its winter home in South America, this sandpiper makes
an early start; Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1926) writes:

     At Guamini, Buenos Aires, from March 3 to 8, white-rumped
     sandpipers were encountered in northward migration from a winter
     range in Patagonia. The species was fairly common on March 3 and
     increased greatly in abundance on the two days that followed. The
     northward journey was apparently as concerted as the movement that
     carried the birds southward, as on March 6 there was a noticeable
     decrease in their numbers, and by March 8, though the birds were
     still common, the bulk of individuals had passed. They arrived in
     flocks from the southward, often of several hundred individuals,
     that whirled in and circled back and forth along the lake shore to
     decoy to birds feeding on the strand or to rise again and continue
     swiftly northward. Those that paused kept up a busy search for food
     along the muddy beaches in or near shallow water, or in company
     with little parties of buff-breasted sandpipers on the drier
     alkaline flats back of the shore line. In early morning they were
     especially active and were in continual movement. Occasionally they
     worked out into comparatively deep water where in feeding it is
     necessary to immerse the head over the eyes nearly to the ear
     openings. When disturbed flocks rose with soft notes that resembled
     _tseet tseet_ or _tseup_ to circle to new feeding grounds on the
     lake shore.

The spring migration route is apparently northward along the Atlantic
coast of South America and through the West Indies to the United States.
Only a few migrate along our Atlantic coast, as the main flight is
northward through the interior, during May and the first few days of
June. Many reach their breeding grounds before the end of May.

_Courtship._--Doctor Wetmore (1926) gives an attractive account of what
seems to be a beginning of courtship in Argentina; he writes:

     Occasional parties of males, animated by the approaching breeding
     season, broke into soft songs and called and twittered, often for
     several minutes, in a musical chorus in low tones that had so
     little carrying power that they merged in the strong wind, and it
     was some time before I succeeded in picking out the sweet
     individual songs _tsep a tsep a tsep a_ or _twee twee tee tee ty
     tee_ given as the head was bobbed rapidly up and down. Occasionally
     when the fall sunlight came warmly I sat in the mud and let little
     bands of white rumps work up around me until they were feeding and
     calling within a meter or so, eyeing me sharply for any cause of
     alarm. At such times their twittering choruses came sweetly and
     pleasantly, clearly audible above the lap of waves and the rush of
     the inevitable winds of the pampas. Between songs the search for
     food continued without cessation. At short intervals, activated by
     the warmth of the sun, they suddenly indulged in dozens of combats
     with their fellows, bloodless affrays, of bluff and retreat, where
     they lowered their heads and with open mouths ran at one another
     pugnaciously. The one attacked sidled quickly away or fluttered off
     for a short distance, save where two of equal temperament chanced
     to clash when first one and then the other threatened with raised
     wings in alternate advance and retreat until the fray was concluded
     to their mutual satisfaction. At such times the movements of these
     otherwise plain little birds were sprightly and vivacious to a
     degree. Their loquacity at this season was marked as it contrasted
     strikingly with their silence and quiet during the resting period
     of southern summer. Flocks frequently rose to perform intricate
     evolutions and then returned with a rush to sweep along the shore
     and join less ambitious comrades. As they passed the white rump
     flashed plainly, certain advertisement of the species. At times the
     chattering of these active flocks reminded me of the twittering of
     swallows.

J. Dewey Soper found this species quite common at various places on
Baffin Island, and has sent me some very full notes on it, from which I
quote as follows:

     The species was encountered at Nettilling Lake, June 10, 1925, when
     a mated pair was flushed from a marshy upland near the Takuirbing
     River. The sexual organs in both were fully developed, the female
     being almost on the point of laying. By the 14th the species had
     become quite common. The males practised their vocal performance on
     the wing immediately upon arrival. They rise to a height of about
     60 feet above the tundra and there they hover with rapidly beating
     wings giving utterance to their nuptial song in notes so weak that
     when a wind is blowing nothing may be heard of it even at
     comparatively close range. It is given in a very low tone and slow
     tempo; the notes are weak and inclined to be squeaky, with a weird
     dripping quality like the sound of water oozing and dropping in a
     small cavern. The species appears to flush silently.

_Nesting._--Very little seems to be known and still less has been
published about the nesting habits of the white-rumped sandpiper. In
MacFarlane's notes I find brief records of seven nests found by his
party on the barren grounds and Arctic coast of Canada, from 1862 to
1865. One nest was found on June 21, 1862, 50 miles east of Fort
Anderson; the female and three eggs were taken; the nest consisted of a
few leaves in a small hole in the ground near a small lake. Another
found on June 29, 1863, on the barren grounds, is described as "a mere
depression in the ground lined with a few decayed leaves"; the female
and four eggs were taken. There is a set of four eggs in the Herbert
Massey collection, taken with the parent bird by E. A. McIllhenny at
Point Barrow, Alaska, on June 25, 1898; the nest is described as "a
hollow in the moss on top of a ridge on the tundra, lined with dry grass
and partly arched over." This is farther west than the species is
supposed to breed, but there are several birds in the Philadelphia
Academy of Sciences collected there in June, which are in full breeding
plumage.

Mr. Soper found a number of nests near Nettilling Lake, Baffin Island,
on which he has sent me the following notes:

     A nest containing four eggs was found on a grassy hummock on the
     tundra bordering the lake on June 16. Many were subsequently found.
     The nest is merely a shallow depression on the crown of a tussock
     of grass and mosses a few inches above the surrounding mud and
     water of the tundra. It is sparingly lined with blades of old grass
     and dead leaves of the dwarf arctic willow. Some are lined
     exclusively with the dried, oval leaves of _Salix herbacea_.
     According to collecting data, both sexes arrive together, with the
     female almost, if not quite, ready for immediate reproduction, as
     evidenced by the condition of the ovaries. The nest of four eggs
     found on June 16 was but four days after the first observed
     arrivals of the species.

     The female upon one's approach plays the familiar artifice of
     simulating a prostrated condition, limping and dragging herself
     along the ground in an effort to attract one's attention from the
     nest. In this they are bold and fearless; and when one sits beside
     the nest they will frequently run up to within a foot or less of
     the observer. In photographing nests from a distance of only a few
     feet, the female will often return to her eggs while one's head is
     under the dark cloth adjusting the focus. One was so devoted to
     her eggs that she would run up and peck at my fingers and run over
     my hand as I extended it toward the nest. This species, when one
     approaches the nest, usually leaves it when one is 20 to 25 yards
     distant and runs along the ground, either directly toward the
     intruder or a little to one side. Because of its remarkable
     similarity to the covering of the tundra at this time, this first
     movement often escapes one, and consequently when the bird is
     first observed fluttering along the ground one naturally imagines
     himself near the nest, when, in reality, it may be 20 or 30 yards
     away. This ruse is a clever one, and no doubt would often save the
     nest from violation. The nests are easily found by retiring and
     watching the female with the glasses. They usually return to the
     nest with little artifice or delay; in fact, often within two or
     three minutes. The above procedure is not an invariable practice,
     as one female I knew would flush directly from the nest to begin
     her tactics only when there was danger of the nest being actually
     trodden upon.

_Eggs._--The four eggs usually laid by the white-rumped sandpiper are
ovate pyriform in shape; all that I have seen are uniform in shape and
have characteristic colors and markings. One of the two sets in the
United States National Museum has a "deep olive buff" ground color, and
the eggs are heavily blotched about the larger end, sparingly spotted
elsewhere with "wood brown," "warm sepia," and "benzo brown," and with a
few underlying spots of various shades of "brownish drab"; an egg from
this set is well figured by Frank Poynting (1895). The other set differs
from this one in having the ground color lighter, "olive buff," and the
spots finer, more scrawly, and lighter in color; the underlying drab
markings are also more numerous.

There is also a set of four eggs in the Thayer collection, taken with
the parent bird by Alfred H. Anderson on Taylor Island, Victoria Land,
July 7, 1919. These eggs are much like the egg figured by Mr. Poynting,
except that in one or two of the eggs the ground color is more greenish.

One of the three sets taken by J. Dewey Soper on Baffin Island looks
much like a miniature set of long-billed curlew's eggs. In three of the
eggs the ground color is "mignonette green," covered with small spots,
more thickly at the larger end, of "bister" and "snuff brown"; the other
has a "deep lichen green" ground color and is irregularly blotched near
the larger end, finely speckled elsewhere with "bister" and "brownish
drab."

The measurements of 34 eggs average 33.7 by 24 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =36.1= by 23.6, 34.2 by =27.7=, =31.5=
by 23.5, and 35 by =22.8= millimeters.

_Young._--Mr. Soper's notes on the young are as follows:

     The first juveniles, about a day old, were seen and collected on
     July 11. They were exceedingly active, a good example of precocial
     young. These were ashy below, buffy above, with black markings, and
     the down over the lower back and rump tipped with small spots of
     white. This species is much more demonstrative and less artful in
     the concealment of young than Baird's sandpiper. The adults come
     within a few feet of the intruder, and by their action advertise
     much more clearly the position of the young. The parent birds keep
     up a continual fine twittering cry of alarm, the female louder and
     more pronounced. The male comes on the scene only at intervals with
     a mouse-like squeaking note. The young are adepts in the art of
     concealment, "freezing" flat to the ground with warning notes from
     the adults. They will lie in this fashion as though dead until
     actually picked up in the hand. When they realize the game is up
     they then become wild and frantically struggle to escape. When
     allowed to do so they will run rapidly away and either hide again
     or attempt to reach the mother bird, whose frantic cries come from
     but a few yards away.

     A young white rump about two-thirds grown and almost on the point
     of flight was captured on August 1. Others seen a few days later on
     the shore of Kuksunittuk Bay were capable of short flights. As an
     experiment, I tried several times to keep individual young alive at
     my base tent on the Takuirbing River, but they invariably died
     within about 24 hours regardless of the best care.

_Plumages._--The downy young white rumped is much like the downy young
of other tundra nesting species of sandpipers. From the stilt sandpiper
it can be distinguished by its much shorter legs and shorter and
slenderer bill, from the Baird by its more buffy face and breast, these
parts being pure white in _bairdi_, and from the least by paler and
duller browns in the upper parts and by white, instead of buffy terminal
tuft spots. The crown, back, rump, wings, and thighs are variegated or
marbled with "Sanford's brown," or "tawny," and black, dotted, except on
the front half of the crown, which is mainly bright brown, with whitish
terminal tufts. The forehead, a broad superciliary stripe, the sides of
the head, throat, and breast are pale buff or buffy white; the remaining
under parts are grayish white. A median frontal stripe of black
terminates in "tawny" toward the bill; there are extensive black areas
on either side of the crown and on the occiput. The nape is grizzly,
buff, gray and dusky.

In juvenal plumage the crown is sepia with "tawny" edgings; the back,
rump, tertials, and scapulars are sepia, with "tawny" edges, and some of
the feathers of the mantle and scapulars are also white tipped; the
under parts are white, but the breast is suffused with light buff and
narrowly streaked with dusky; the median and lesser wing coverts are
broadly edged with light buff or whitish.

The postjuvenal molt of the body plumage usually occurs in September and
October, mainly in the latter month, but sometimes not until November.
The upper body plumage is not all molted, so that first winter birds can
be distinguished by tawny or buffy edged feathers in the mantle and by
the juvenal wing coverts. The next partial prenuptial molt apparently
removes all traces of immaturity.

Adults have a prenuptial molt, beginning in March, of the under-body
plumage, most of the upper-body plumage, sometimes the tail, and some of
the wing coverts. But this is almost immediately preceded by the delayed
molt of the remiges in January and February, so that it seems to be a
nearly complete prenuptial molt, which is barely finished before the
birds start on their long northward migration. The postnuptial molt of
adults, beginning in August and often lasting into October, involves
only the body plumage, the tail, and some scapulars, tertials, and wing
coverts. The gray winter plumage, so different from the brightly colored
spring plumage, is seldom seen in its completeness before the birds go
south.

_Food._--Very little seems to have been published on the food of the
white-rumped sandpiper, but W. L. McAtee (1911) gives it credit for
eating some injurious insects and worms, such as grasshoppers, the
clover-root curculio, which is injurious to clover, and marine worms
(_Nereis_), which prey on oysters.

Stuart T. Danforth (1925) says that four collected in Porto Rico--

     had eaten 77.7 per cent of animal food and 22.3 per cent of
     vegetable matter. Fifty per cent of the animal matter consisted of
     bloodworms, 25 per cent of Planorbis snails, and 5 per cent of
     _Corixa reticulata_. The vegetable matter consisted entirely of
     seeds, of which those of Compositae formed 33.3 per cent, _Sesban
     emerus_ 30 per cent, and _Persicaria portoricensis_ 36.7 per cent.
     In addition to food, the stomachs contained mineral matter (coarse
     red sand) forming 32.5 per cent of the stomach contents.

_Behavior._--Lucien M. Turner, who has had abundant opportunity to
observe this species in Ungava, writes in his notes:

     The flight of these birds is remarkably firm and swift, generally
     in an undulatory manner and swerving to the right or left often
     with the body inclined to one side, the wing nearly perpendicular,
     alternately presenting the upper and lower surface of the body.
     Just before alighting the wings are raised until the tips nearly
     touch over the back and for a moment held outstretched and then
     slowly folded. The bird is quite active while searching for food
     and seldom remains more than a few seconds in a spot, where it
     constantly picks here and there for the minute organisms which form
     its food. During this time all is activity and quite in contrast to
     the interval while the tide is high and the bird is on the high
     land resting and digesting its food. Here it is more sleepy and
     less easily disturbed. The eyesight of these sandpipers is
     certainly very acute, as they are able to detect the presence of a
     person at a long distance and give a twittering, snipey note,
     otherwise regardless of approaching danger. In all their doings the
     utmost harmony seems to prevail. The only object of their lives
     seems to be to gather food. No sooner does the water begin to ebb
     than a few of these birds will swish over some point of land with
     merry twittering, eagerly scanning the bank for the least
     appearance of mud now being exposed. By the time the tide has half
     ebbed myriads of these birds are sweeping back and forth along the
     river. As the water shallows over well known bars, and scarcely has
     the water shoaled enough to permit the birds to alight without
     swimming, than as many sandpipers as can collect on the place
     eagerly alight and begin probing the ooze for food. The lowering
     water is followed by the thronging birds to the last inch.

     The flowing tide begins and the birds retreat carefully seizing
     every object of food that the rising water brings to the surface.
     Often they are so eager in their search that many birds are
     crowded into the deeper water and save themselves only by flight.
     This or that place is quickly covered over by the water and again
     the birds collect into larger flocks which now sway to the right
     or left, alternately, exposing their silvery white underparts
     which gleam in the sunshine like a stream of silver. The gray or
     brown of their backs relieving the color as the long stream of
     birds pass by. They partially halt their flight and become a
     compact flock, whereupon they separate into smaller flocks which,
     as the water gradually rises and covers their feeding grounds, now
     betake themselves to the higher lands of the banks above. Here,
     around the pools on the highlands, or among the grassy margins of
     the lakes, they collect to wash themselves and digest the food
     they have obtained from the salt-water mud.

     As a person approaches one of these pools, in the latter part of
     August, little suspecting that anything will be found near them,
     these birds turn their backs, which so closely resemble the lichen
     covered granite as to render the birds indistinguishable. A nearer
     approach and they present their white breasts which afford a
     striking contrast with the surroundings. In a moment they run
     together and huddle into a compact flock before they take wing. I
     have, by firing at the proper moment, secured every individual
     composing a flock of over a dozen birds. If they fly they take to
     their wings with a sudden impulse and fly in a zigzag movement for
     a few yards then swerve to right or left continuing until another
     locality is reached, where they sit quietly until approached. This
     is repeated every tide and, as the birds are crepuscular also in
     their habits, their opportunities for becoming fat are nearly
     doubled. They acquire the fat in a short time. The thickness of the
     layer is often one-fourth of an inch and completely envelops the
     body. The least abrasion of the skin or a shot hole soon fills the
     surrounding parts with oil which has exuded from the wound, making
     the preparation of skins for specimens a very difficult matter. The
     flesh of these birds is peculiarly tender and richly flavored. At
     times I have gone out to shoot these birds for the table and with
     five discharges (of half an ounce of No. 12 shot) I secured on one
     occasion 82 birds. A heavy stick thrown in among them as they wade
     along the water's edge also knocks many of them over, for these
     birds seem so intent on procuring food that but little heed is
     given to the hunter.

William Brewster (1925) says:

     Invariably among the tamest and most confiding of our so-called
     shore birds, they will usually permit one to approach, either on
     foot or in a boat, within 5 or 6 yards, while I have known a gun to
     be discharged into a flock with fatal effect, but without causing
     any of the birds which escaped injury to take wing. Like most obese
     creatures they are habitually sluggish, confining their wanderings
     afoot to limited areas, and exploiting these very deliberately,
     walking slowly and sedately in crouching attitudes, with measured
     steps, frequently stopping to thrust their bills listlessly a
     little way into the soft ground, or to pick up small morsels of
     food from the surface. Occasionally, however, one may see them
     running to and fro over the mud quite briskly and ceaselessly,
     perhaps incited to this comparatively unusual behavior by the
     example of other waders feeding close about them, for they are by
     no means averse to the companionship of several of the lesser
     kinds, such as semipalmated plover and sandpipers, grass-birds,
     dunlins, etc. Although somewhat loath to take wing, even when
     threatened by obvious danger, they are likely to fly swiftly and
     far, when once started, doubling and circling over the marshes in
     much the same manner as other small sandpipers.

John T. Nichols, says in his notes:

     When startled, a bird has been seen to crouch down concealing the
     bulk of its white underparts and practically disappear against the
     brightly lighted mud flat on which it had been feeding. This is a
     habit shared by its close relatives the pectoral and least
     sandpipers.

_Voice._--The white-rumped sandpiper is ordinarily a rather silent bird,
but its short, sharp flight note is characteristic of the species and
serves to distinguish it readily in the field. To me it sounds like
_tzeep_ or _tzip_; Mr. Nichols calls it "a squeaky mouse-like _jeet_";
Mr. Brewster (1925) describes it as "a feeble lisping _zip_ or _tsip_,
fringilline, rather than limicoline, in character"; and Doctor Townsend
(1905) thinks that "it suggests at times the call note of the pipit." C.
J. Maynard (1896) refers to "one cry in particular, being loudly given
and greatly prolonged, resembling the scream of a rapacious bird more
than the whistle of a sandpiper."

_Field marks._--The best field mark for this species is the white rump,
or rather upper tail-coverts; this is conspicuous in flight but is
usually concealed by the wings when the bird is on the ground. I have
noticed that, while the bird is standing with its side toward me, the
gray of the upper parts extend down on the sides of the neck as far as
the bend of the wing, whereas in the semipalmated sandpiper, with which
it might be confused, there is a decided white space in front of the
wing.

Mr. Nichols says in his notes:

     This bird is a size larger than least or semipalmated sandpipers,
     and at favorable angles shows a diagnostic white patch crossing
     above the rather dark tail. This white patch is a good example of
     color which apparently functions as a recognition mark. If the same
     were fortuitous one would not expect the tail to be darker than in
     related species, as is the case, causing the white rump to show
     more prominently. Straight bill, (or with slight decurviture at the
     tip, like that of the pectoral sandpiper) and as a rule finely and
     sharply streaked head and breast prevent chance of confusion with
     the European curlew sandpiper, of casual occurrence on our Atlantic
     coast.

_Fall._--The beginning of the fall flight is apparently southeastward
from its breeding grounds west of Hudson Bay and perhaps southward from
Baffin Island, where it breeds. Mr. Turner's Ungava notes give a very
good idea of this first step in the migration and a good impression of
the great abundance of this species; he writes:

     As I proceeded farther northward I did not observe a single one of
     these sandpipers until we came to anchor off the mouth of Georges
     River (July 31) where quite a number were seen on the pebbly beach,
     seeking their food among the rocks and shingle as the tide receded.
     At this date quite a number, in fact fully three-fourths, of those
     seen were birds of the year as was fully attested by traces of
     downy plumage yet among the feathers of the body and especially on
     the head and neck. The sizes of the flocks varied from three or
     four to nearly a dozen, doubtless consisting of a single brood or,
     in the case of the larger flocks, of two or more broods with their
     parents. Some of the younger members of the flocks had the wing
     quills not fully developed while others were considerably farther
     advanced. Such a variation of plumage both in age and coloration
     was exhibited that I presumed there must be two weeks difference in
     the ages of the different young.

     By the 10th of August all the young are well able to fly and make
     protracted flights in search of food. By this date they assemble in
     flocks, amounting at times, to thousands of individuals, resorting
     to the mud flats left bare by the receding tide. The mouth of the
     Koksoak and the cove to the westward of it present excellent tracts
     of mud deposited in the little indentations. By the middle of
     September these birds begin to depart to the south. Many of them
     ascended the Koksoak and others doubtless followed the windings of
     the coast down the Atlantic. I have seen numerous flocks over a
     hundred miles from the mouth of the river as late as October 12th,
     and an occasional single bird as late as the 20th of that month. I
     have observed, at the mouth of the Koksoak River, flocks of these
     birds often numbering over a hundred individuals suddenly appear
     from high in the air. These I suspected to be birds coming from the
     regions to the northward of the strait for they always came from
     the sea.

Thence there is an overland flight to the Atlantic coast. Mr. Brewster
(1925) says:

     White-rumped sandpipers visit Lake Umbagog regularly and not
     infrequently, if rather sparingly, in autumn, appearing oftenest
     during the month of October. Those arriving early in the season are
     mostly adult birds which occur singly or two or three together;
     those coming later are of various ages and sometimes in flocks
     containing as many as eight or nine members each, but rarely, if
     ever, a greater number. Bonaparte's sandpipers are hardy birds.
     They may be seen at the lake when its bordering marshes are stiff
     with frost. Once (October 26, 1883) I found nine of them near the
     mouth of Cambridge River two days after the entire region had been
     covered with snow to a depth of 7 inches.

This bird is a regular, but never an abundant, migrant on the coast of
Massachusetts in the fall. The vast numbers which Turner saw in Ungava
must seek some other route; the species is never abundant in the
interior in the fall and it seems to be rather rare on the Atlantic
coast south of New England; the natural inference is that it migrates at
sea from Maine or Nova Scotia directly to South America or the West
Indies. It is abundant at times in Bermuda.

The adults begin to reach Cape Cod in August, but the main flight comes
in September, consisting partially of young birds; most of the young
birds come in October and some linger as late as November 10. While with
us the white-rumped sandpiper frequents the wet meadows and marshes near
the shore, as well as the sand flats, mud flats, and beaches, feeding at
low tide singly or in small flocks and usually associated with pectoral,
semipalmated, or least sandpipers. During high tides, while the flats
are covered, this species may be seen on the high sandy beaches, mixed
in with the vast flocks of small shorebirds, sleeping, or resting, or
preening their plumage, while waiting for feeding time to come again; if
the wind is blowing, all the birds are facing it; many are crouching on
the sand and others are standing on one leg with the bill tucked under
the scapulars. These flocks often contain hundreds and sometimes
thousands of birds, mainly semipalmated sandpipers, semipalmated
plover, and sanderlings. They are not all asleep, however, for if
approached too closely, they all rise and whirl away in a vast
shimmering cloud, flashing now white and now dark as they turn, and
settle on the beach again at no great distance.

_Winter._--August finds the white-rumped sandpiper migrating along the
coast of Brazil and it has been known to reach Cape Horn as early as
September 9. Doctor Wetmore (1926) writes:

     The white-rumped sandpiper was the most abundant of the migrant
     shore birds in the regions visited in southern South America. The
     species was not recorded until September 6, 1920, when it appeared
     in abundance in southward migration on the lagoons at kilometer 80,
     west of Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay. The first flocks from which
     specimens were taken were adult females, and two taken on the date
     when they were first recorded had laid eggs a few weeks previous as
     was shown by the appearance of the ovaries. The southward migration
     came with a rush as the birds passed through the night as witnessed
     by their calls. The flight continued until September 21, when a
     dozen, the last seen here, were recorded. The birds circled about
     lagoons in small compact flocks or walked along on muddy shores,
     where they fed with head down, probing rapidly in the soft mud;
     anything edible encountered was seized and swallowed and the bird
     continued without delay in its search for more.

     Farther south this species was encountered in abundance in its
     winter range on the pampa. Ten were recorded at Dolores, Buenos
     Aires, October 21, and from October 22 to November 15 the species
     was found in numbers on the coastal mud flats on the Bay of
     Samborombom. A few were seen at pools of water in the sand dunes
     below Cape San Antonio. Along the Rio Ajo white-rumped sandpipers
     were encountered in flocks of hundreds that came upstream to
     search the mud flats at low tide or were concentrated on bars at
     the mouth when the water was high. In early morning there was a
     steady flight of them passing to suitable feeding grounds. The
     birds flew swiftly, with soft notes, from 3 to 15 feet from the
     earth. In feeding they scattered out in little groups that covered
     the bare mud systematically. It was not unusual to record as many
     as 2,000 in a day. About two hundred were observed in the bay at
     Ingeniero White, the port of Bahia Blanca, on December 13, and at
     Carhue, Buenos Aires, from December 16 to 18, white-rumped
     sandpipers were noted in fair numbers on inundated ground back of
     the shore of Lake Epiquen or about fresh-water ponds on the pampa
     inland. None were found in Uruguay during February.

Ernest Gibson (1920) says of this species, at Cape San Antonio, Buenos
Aires:

     This is certainly our commonest wader, and is found everywhere in
     flocks, from, say, the end of October to the middle or end of
     March. The number in these gatherings is only restricted by the
     area of the feeding ground; hence, when large mud flats are
     available in the vicinity of our fresh or salt water lagunas and
     cangrejales, or at the subsidence of a flood, the flocks are
     sometimes of enormous size. The observer may see many acres of
     ground which look to be in continuous movement, the surface being
     alive with the restless throng of sandpipers running about and
     chasing each other, feeding, or taking constant short flights.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--North and South America; casual in Europe.

_Breeding range._--Although the white-rumped sandpiper has been noted in
summer from Wainwright, Alaska, east to southern Greenland
(Julianshaab), the only places where eggs have been taken are Point
Barrow, Alaska; Herschel Island, Yukon; Taylor Island, Victoria Land;
Fort Anderson and Rendezvous Lake, Mackenzie; and the southeast shore of
Lake Nettilling, Baffin Island.

_Winter range._--North to Paraguay (Rio Pilcomayo and Rio Parana); and
Uruguay (Montevideo). East to Uruguay (Montevideo); Argentina (La Plata,
Cape San Antonio, Bahia Blanca, Rio Chubut, and Puerto San Julian); the
Falkland Islands; and Tierra del Fuego. South to Tierra Fuego; and
southern Chile (Straits of Magellan). West to Chile (Straits of Magellan
and Santiago); and Paraguay (Rio Pilcomayo).

_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida, De
Funiak Springs, May 12; Georgia, Savannah, May 17; South Carolina, Mount
Pleasant, May 7, Frogmore, May 7, and Charleston, May 16; North
Carolina, Cape Hatteras, May 2, Churchs Island, May 6, and Pea and
Brodie Islands, May 15; Virginia, Smith's Island, May 14; District of
Columbia, Washington, May 11; New Jersey, Long Beach, May 9, Trenton,
May 12, and Bernardsville, May 14; New York, Mastic, May 11,
Canandaigua, May 19, Rockaway Beach, May 21, and Freeport, May 22;
Connecticut, Middletown, May 10, and New Haven, May 19; Rhode Island,
Block Island, May 16; Massachusetts, Melrose, May 9, and Harvard, May
20; Vermont, Woodstock, May 14, Brattleboro, May 18, and Rutland, May
19; Maine, Scarboro, May 29; Quebec, Godbout, May 24, and Quebec City,
May 27; Louisiana, Lobdell, May 14; Kentucky, Bowling Green, April 27;
Missouri, Jacks Fork, May 15, and Sand Ridge, May 16; Illinois, De Kalb,
May 8, and Elgin, May 11; Ohio, Canton, May 8, Berlin Center, May 11,
and Youngstown, May 17; Michigan, Detroit, May 6; Ontario, Toronto, May
26; Iowa, Marshalltown, May 4, and Sioux City, May 7; Wisconsin,
Whitewater, April 28; Minnesota, Wilder, May 5, Jackson, May 13, and
Heron Lake, May 19; Texas, Brownsville, April 11, and Ingram, May 8;
Kansas, Emporia, May 4, Lawrence, May 5, and Topeka, May 7; Nebraska,
Neligh, May 1, and Peru, May 13; South Dakota, Sioux Falls, May 5, and
Vermilion, May 9; Manitoba, Whitewater Lake, May 12; Saskatchewan,
Ravenscrag, May 13; and Mackenzie, Fort Resolution, May 19, and Fort
Simpson, May 26.

Late dates of spring departure from the wintering grounds are:
Argentina, French Bay, March 7, and Guamini, March 8. In North America,
late dates are: South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, May 30, and Frogmore,
May 31; North Carolina, Raleigh, May 24, and Lake Ellis, June 15;
Virginia, Smith's Island, June 7; Delaware, Lewes, June 8; Pennsylvania,
Erie, June 4; New Jersey, Bernardsville, May 24, and Camden, May 24; New
York, Castleton, June 2, and Long Beach, June 20; Massachusetts,
Harvard, June 4; Illinois, Waukegan, June 9; Ohio, Painesville, June 14,
and Lakeside, June 25; Ontario, Toronto, June 21; Iowa, Sioux City, May
30, and Keokuk, June 5; Wisconsin, Madison, May 30; Minnesota, Hallock,
June 8; Texas, Lomita, May 22, and Gainesville, May 24; Kansas, Fort
Riley, May 22 and Stafford County, June 6; Nebraska, Lincoln, May 20,
Republican Fork, May 25, and Valentine, May 25; South Dakota,
Forestburg, May 27, and Vermilion, June 5; North Dakota, Charlson, June
1; Manitoba, Reaburn, June 6, Duck Mountain, June 8, and Shoal Lake,
June 20; and Saskatchewan, Kutanajan Lake, June 9, and Quill Lake, June
10.

_Fall migration._--Early fall arrivals are: Saskatchewan, Indian Head,
July 1; Texas, Tivoli, August 17; Minnesota, St. Vincent, August 4;
Wisconsin, Lake Koshkonong, August 1; Iowa, Marshalltown, August 19, and
Keokuk, August 21; Ontario, Toronto, August 23; Michigan, Lansing, July
29; Massachusetts, Marthas Vineyard, July 16, and Ipswich, July 24;
Rhode Island, Providence, July 18, and Block Island, July 27; New York,
Orient, July 24; New Jersey, Long Beach, July 7; Pennsylvania, Erie,
August 29; Florida, Palma Sola, August 27; Paraguay, near Puerto
Pinasco, September 6; and Patagonia, Orange Bay, September 9.

Late departures in the fall are: Mackenzie, Slave River, October 1;
Saskatchewan, Eastend, September 12; Manitoba, Shoal Lake, September 21;
Minnesota, Hallock, October 16; Iowa, Marshalltown, November 7; Ontario,
Toronto, November 2, and Ottawa, November 5; Ohio, Columbus, October 28,
and North Lima, October 29; Ungava, Koksoak River, October 20; Baffin
Island, Pangnirtung Fiord, September 25; Labrador, Battle Harbor,
October 29; and Quebec, Montreal, October 31; Maine, Lake Umbagog,
October 14, and Bangor, October 23; Massachusetts, Lynn, October 12,
Boston, October 22, Harvard, October 24, and Cape Cod, November 10;
Connecticut, Branford, October 23, and East Hartford, October 30; New
York, Ithaca, October 16, Quogue, October 30, Shinnecock Bay, October
30, Oneida Lake, November 3, and Canandaigua, November 4; Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, October 10, and Erie, October 29; District of Columbia,
Anacostia, October 24; Virginia, Lake Drummond, November 5; Ohio,
Columbus, November 15; North Carolina, Church's Island, October 7, and
Raleigh, December 7; South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, October 17, and
Frogmore, October 24; Georgia, Savannah, October 9; and Florida, St.
Augustine, December 2.

_Casual records._--Although probably on the migrational highway, records
of the white-rumped sandpiper in Central America, the West Indies, and
Lesser Antilles are so few that in these places it can only be
considered as a casual visitor. Specimens are in the British Museum from
Lion Hill, Panama; Momotombo, Nicaragua; and Tizimin and Cozumel Island,
Mexico. It also has been observed or taken on the islands of Barbados
(September 20 and 22, year?); Dominica (November 5, 1904); St. Lucia;
Guadeloupe; Martinique; Trinidad; Porto Rico (Mayaguez, October 2, 1900,
and Culebrita, April 15, 1912); Cuba; the Bahamas (Inagua, May 27, 1879,
and Fortune Island, August 5, 1876); and the Bermuda Islands. Examples
were reported from the Yellowstone River, Montana, August 8 to 13, 1878;
it has been taken at Laramie, Wyo.; in New Mexico (Fort Fillmore,
October, 1852, and Zuni Mountains, September 16, 1851); and there are
several records for eastern Colorado. The specimen reported from
Oakland, Calif., was probably the Pectoral sandpiper, _P. maculata_. One
was taken at Hopedale, Labrador.

White-rumped sandpipers have been reported in the British Isles fourteen
or fifteen times and a specimen was taken in Franz Josef Land on June 28
(year unknown, but prior to 1898).

_Egg dates._--Arctic Canada: 14 records, June 15 to July 24; 7 records,
June 30 to July 12. Alaska: 2 records, June 25.

PISOBIA BAIRDI (Coues)

BAIRD SANDPIPER

HABITS

_Spring._--This sandpiper belongs to that class of birds which Abel
Chapman (1924) so aptly terms "globe spanners," for on its migrations
its traverses the whole length of both American continents twice a year.
From its wintering grounds in Patagonia it must start north even earlier
than the preceding species or else it must travel faster. Dr. Alexander
Wetmore (1926) observed it migrating past Buenos Aires on March 5 in
company with white-rumped sandpipers, and it has been known to reach
Texas early in March. From there its course seems to be northward
between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. A.G. Lawrence
tells me that it passes through Manitoba between April 28 and May 29;
and J.A. Munro gives me, as his spring dates for southern British
Columbia, April 30 to May 10. Prof. William Rowan (Mss.) calls it
extremely abundant in Alberta about the middle of May and usually gone
by the 24th. It is very rare east of the Mississippi in the spring. E.A.
Preble (1908) saw large flocks foraging on floating ice at Lake
Athabaska on May 25. Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1900) records it at the Kowak
River, Alaska, on May 20. Joseph Dixon (1917) says:

     On May 31, 1914, at Griffin Point, Arctic Alaska, the first pair of
     Baird sandpipers for the season were noted feeding along the rim of
     a frozen tundra pond. The weather had turned bitterly cold during
     the previous night, and as a result the newly formed ice on the
     ponds was thick enough to support a man. Strictly speaking, there
     was no night at this date, for the two months of continuous
     daylight had already begun; so in a short time the sandpipers were
     bustling about picking up the mosquito and other pupae which were
     being washed out by a newly-born stream that gurgled under the snow
     and ice on its way down to the frozen lagoon.

_Courtship._--Two somewhat different accounts of the courtship of this
species have been published. W. Sprague Brooks (1915), who found this
bird breeding at Demarcation Point, Alaska, writes:

     Only once did I note any courtship activity. On this occasion (May
     24), the male would fly a few feet above the female, while she
     rested on the ground, with quick erratic wing strokes suggesting a
     nighthawk. Frequently he would alight and raise the wings high over
     the back as a gull does before folding them. Then with the forearms
     perpendicular, the primaries would be slowly raised and lowered
     like a pump handle, generally lowered to right angles with the
     forearms, sometimes lower. Not a sound was uttered.

Alfred M. Bailey (1926), whose observations were made at Cape Prince of
Wales, Alaska, says:

     Cutting down the opposite side of the ridge, I heard many calls
     which reminded me of home in the early spring, for the combined
     totals sounded like the singing of many little grass frogs in a
     meadow pond. It was the call, or rather the "spring song," of the
     Baird sandpiper. I soon flushed a little female, which fluttered
     away uttering cries of alarm. I concealed myself, and she soon
     returned, the male also hovering about, making his little froglike
     peep. At times he would rise high in the air, in the way so
     characteristic of male sandpipers, give forth his song, and sail
     down to perch.

_Nesting._--MacFarlane's notes mention seven nests found in the vicinity
of Franklin Bay, but very few data were given; "on June 24, 1864, a nest
containing four eggs was found in the Barren Grounds, in a swampy tract
between two small lakes, and was composed of a few decayed leaves placed
in a small cavity or depression in the ground, shaded by a tuft of
grass." John Murdoch (1885) says:

     The nest was always well hidden in the grass and never placed in
     marshy ground or on the bare black parts of tundra, and consists
     merely of a slight depression in the ground, thinly lined with
     dried grass. All the eggs we found were obtained from the last week
     in June to the first week of July, a trifle later than the other
     waders. The sitting female when disturbed exhibits the greatest
     solicitude, running about with drooping, outspread wings, and loud
     outcry, and uses every possible wile to attract the intruder from
     the eggs. The nest is so well concealed and forms so inconspicuous
     an object that the only practical way to secure the eggs is to
     withdraw to one side and allow the sitting bird to return,
     carefully marking where she alights. Having done this on one
     occasion and failing to find the eggs, after flushing the bird two
     or three times I discovered that I had walked on the eggs, though I
     had been looking for them most carefully.

Mr. Brooks (1915) writes:

     Two nests were found, each containing four eggs and about one
     quarter incubated on June 12 and 14, 1914. Murdoch found them
     nesting rather later than other waders at Point Barrow, but my
     experience at Demarcation Point was quite the opposite, for here
     they were the first to breed. A female taken June 2, had a fully
     formed and colored egg about ready to lay. Both of the above nests
     were on dry, well-drained tundra near the bases of knolls. The
     nests were like the other sandpipers, and lined with dry willow
     leaves, but the cavities were less deep than those of the
     semipalmated sandpiper.

     The female was on one nest and the male on the other. The former
     left the nest when I was some distance away and flying directly
     toward me alighted within a few feet. While I was at the nest she
     walked hurriedly about close by constantly uttering a plaintive
     _weet-weet-weet_ always repeated three times. Occasionally she
     would take a short flight about me and utter a note very similar
     to the rattling call of the pectoral sandpiper. The male when
     disturbed acted quite differently. He sat closer and on leaving
     the nest showed the greatest concern, dragging a "broken" wing in
     the most distressing manner. In neither case was the mate about as
     frequently occurs with the semipalmated sandpiper.

Mr. Dixon (1917) says:

     At Griffin Point, less than 50 miles to the eastward of Demarcation
     Point, the first set of eggs (fresh) was taken on June 24. The last
     set was found July 11, with the four eggs nearly ready to hatch.
     Murdoch speaks of the nests being well concealed and always hidden
     in the grass. In those nests which we found, no attempt had been
     made at such concealment, as they were placed absolutely in the
     open, with nothing to cover or conceal the eggs at all, and the
     nests so shallow that the tops of the eggs were almost or quite
     level with the surrounding grass. Far from being conspicuously
     exposed thereby, however, the eggs were shielded from discovery in
     the most effective manner possible, for in color and markings they
     blended so perfectly with the brown tundra that a person could
     easily look directly at them from a distance of 6 feet and still
     not be able to see them.

     This method of nesting seems to be the most effective way of
     escaping one great danger at least, namely, the notice of the
     countless jaegers, both parasitic and pomarine. These robbers
     subsist almost entirely during the breeding period on the young
     and eggs of other birds, and cruise continually back and forth
     over the sandpipers' nesting ground, looking for the least
     telltale feather, bit of wind-blown down, or other object which
     might afford a clue to the whereabouts of a nest.

Herbert W. Brandt found only one nest of the Baird sandpiper near Hooper
Bay, Alaska, which he tells me--

     Was on a dry mossy ridge amid the dunes and was partially concealed
     by the surrounding curly grass. It was flimsily constructed of
     grass stems and filled with a scant handful of small leaves of the
     dwarf birch and blueberry, together with a few adjacent
     reindeer-moss stems. The measurements of this nest were: Inside
     diameter 2-1/2 inches, and depth perhaps 2 inches.

_Eggs._--The Baird sandpiper lays ordinarily four eggs, occasionally
only three. These vary in shape from ovate or ovate pyriform to
subovate, and they have a slight gloss. In color they often resemble
certain types of western sandpipers' eggs, as they are usually of a
decidedly reddish tone; but they are considerably larger. The ground
color varies from "pinkish buff" to "pale pinkish buff" or from "olive
buff" to "cartridge buff." Three quite different types are represented
in my collection. In the western sandpiper type the "pinkish buff"
ground color is quite evenly covered over the whole egg with small,
elongated spots, somewhat thicker at the larger end and having a spiral
tendency, of "Hay's russet" and "chestnut brown," with a few underlying
spots of "brownish drab." Another set has a "cartridge buff" ground
color, which is unevenly covered, chiefly at the larger end, with small
spots of duller browns, "bister," "Saccardo's umber," and light shades
of "brownish drab." This seems to be the commonest type. An unusually
beautiful set has a "pinkish buff" ground color, sparingly sprinkled
with minute brown dots and boldly blotched with great, irregular
splashes of deep, rich browns, "chestnut," "chocolate," and "liver
brown," overlying large splashes of various shades of "vinaceous gray."
The measurements of 54 eggs average 33.1 by 23.8 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =33.5= by 24.4, 34.3 by =24.6= and
=30= by =22= millimeters.

_Young._--Incubation is shared by both sexes, but we have no data as to
its duration. Mr. Dixon (1917) found the male bird covering the eggs
more often than the female, and others have reported finding the male
caring for the young. Mr. Dixon (1917) says of the young:

     The young sandpipers were found feeding in the shallower pools,
     where the water was less than 1 inch deep. At times as many as five
     were noted in an area 1 yard square. They congregated along the
     water's edge, picking up, as the tide slowly receded, many bits of
     food. The nature of this provender I could not make out, although
     the young birds would often come within 20 feet of me when I
     remained motionless for a few minutes. The old birds were much more
     shy, often taking flight or retreating to distant gravel bars upon
     my approach. Considerable time was spent by both young and old in
     making short flights about the harbor. These flights alternated
     with periods of food getting, and were seemingly in preparation for
     the fall migration. It was only a few days then until the bulk of
     the species left on their southward journey.

_Plumages._--The downy young Baird sandpiper is well colored to escape
detection on the brown tundra moss. The crown and upper parts are
variegated with black and "tawny" in an irregular pattern and dotted
with white terminal tufts; the crown is centrally "tawny," with a median
black stripe, and is bordered with black; the forehead, back to eyes,
sides of the head and all under parts are pure white; there is a black
spot in the center of the forehead, a black stripe from the bill,
through the eye, to the occiput and another below it and parallel to
it; there is a white superciliary stripe and some white mottling on the
back of the head and neck.

The juvenal plumage is equally concealing. The crown is sepia with buffy
edgings; the back and scapulars are dark sepia with broad white edgings;
the wing is like the adult except that the coverts and tertials are
edged with "pinkish buff" and tipped with white; the under parts are
like the adult but the breast is more pinkish buff and more faintly
streaked. A partial postjuvenal molt, including most of the body plumage
and some of the scapulars, wing coverts, and tertials and takes place in
October or later. I have seen birds in full juvenal plumage as late as
October 3; young birds migrate in this plumage. At the first prenuptial
molt the following spring young birds become indistinguishable from
adults.

Adults have a partial prenuptial molt in April and May, including only
part of the body plumage. The postnuptial molt begins in July, when the
body plumage is molted before the birds migrate; the wings are molted
after the birds reach their winter home, from December to February, not
long before they started to migrate north again. I have seen birds in
full nuptial plumage as early as May 1 and as late as July 29, and in
full winter plumage as late as April 5. The adult nuptial and winter
plumages are somewhat different; the colors are brighter and richer in
the spring and the markings are more distinct; in the fall the upper
parts are nearly uniformly buffy brownish with dusky shaft streaks; the
chest and sides of the breast are dull brownish buff and not distinctly
streaked.

_Food._--Preble and McAtee (1923) found in the stomachs of three Baird
sandpipers, taken on the Pribilof Islands, amphipods, algae, ground
beetles, and a weevil. Mr. McAtee (1911) includes this species among
those that eat mosquito larvae, crane-fly larvae, grasshoppers, and the
clover-root curculio, all injurious insects. It feeds on the open mud
flats with other species of sandpipers, but seems to prefer to feed
about the edges of the shallow inland pools or where the muddy flats are
partially overgrown with grass. William Brewster (1925) watched some of
them feeding, of which he says:

     On first noticing me draw near they stood erect, with upstretched
     necks, regarding me intently and distrustfully, but their feeding
     operations were resumed soon after I ceased to advance. By
     successive runs, 8 or 10 feet in length and often executed very
     swiftly, they moved about quickly in various directions over soft