50 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



white shafts. Crown light grayish fulvous or ochraceous. heavily streaked with black; 

 wins-coverts brownish gray, with darker centres and paler edges, the shafts blackish; ter- 

 tials edged with ochraceous ; primaries dusky. A light superciliary stripe, and a darker one 

 on side of the head; neck and jugulum very pale grayish fulvous or fulvous-ashy streaked 

 with dusky; sides and crissum narrowly streaked; other lower parts immaculate white. 

 Adult in winter: Above, rather dark brownish-gray, the feathers with indistinctly darker 

 centers; rump, etc., as in summer plumage. Superciliary stripe and lower parts white, 

 the .jugulum light ashy, indistinctly streaked. Young, first plumage: Very similar to the 

 summer plumage of the adult, but many of the scapulars and interscapulars tipped with 

 white, these feathers without any bars; wing-coverts bordered with ochraceous. Jugulum 

 suffused with pale fulvous, and indistinctly streaked.* 



Total length, about 5.50 to 6.50 inches; extent 11 to 11.50; wing, about 3.50 to nearly 4; 

 culmen, about .75 to .92; tarsus, .75; middle toe, .GO. Bill dull black; iris dark brown; legs 

 and toes dusky. 



This abundant and extensively diffused little species resembles 

 very closely, both in its small size and in its colors, at all sea- 

 sons, the equally common and widely distributed Semipalmated 

 Sandpiper (Ereunetes pusillt/s). It may be immediately distin- 

 guished, however, by the completely cleft toes, the other species 

 having all the anterior toes webbed at the base. 



Little need be said about the habits of so common a bird as 

 the present species, especially since it so much resembles its con- 

 geners in this respect. Mr. Nelson refers to its occurrence in 

 Cook county as follows: 



"Common migrant. Not so numerous as the preceding \_Eren- 

 netes pusillus}. Arrives the 1st of May and remains until the 

 last of the month ; returns with the preceding. The 5th of June, 

 1875, I found one of these birds building its nest near the 

 Calumet River. When first observed it was busily at work in 

 the midst of a small bunch of grass, but upon my approach it 

 ran a few feet to one side and watched my movements. The 

 nest was nearly finished, and was a shallow depression in the 

 center of the tuft of grass, formed by the bird, which had just 

 commenced lining it with small straws. Unfortunately work 

 was not resumed upon the nest after my visit, but the birds 

 were noticed several times in the vicinity, and they probably had 

 a nest in some safer spot. Several Least Sandpipers were ob- 

 served near Waukegan, the first of July, 1875, by Mr. Rice, who 

 is certain they had nested in the vicinity." 



* Some young specimens in the collection, apparently of the same age and almost cer- 

 tainly the same species, differ very strikingly from the a'^ove description in the less 

 amount or total absence of rufous above, the feathers having merely narrow ochraceous 

 borders, and scarcely any white on the ends of the feathers; the whole plumage being thus 

 very much duller. 



