WATER BIRDS. 189 



102. Sanderling. Calidris leucophaea (Pallas). (248) 



Synonyms: Beach Bird, Surf Snipe, White Snipe. — Tringa leucophsea. Pall., 1764. — 

 Tringa arenaria, Linn., 1766. — Calidris arenaria of most authors. 



The only Beach Bird of its size with but three toes — the hind toe lacking. 

 It is also probably the palest or whitest of the sandpipers, young birds and 

 adults in the fall being pure white below, and white, speckled thinly with 

 darker, above. In flight the compact flocks, light bodies, dark wings, and 

 conspicuous white wing-bars, are good recognition marks. 



Distribution. — Nearly cosmopolitan, breeding in the Arctic and sub- 

 Arctic regions, migrating, in America, south to Chili and Patagonia. 



This seems to be a rather common species along the shores of the Great 

 Lakes during migration, but is seldom met with in the interior. Dr. Gibbs 

 states that so far as he knows it has never been taken in Kalamazoo county. 

 Mr. Newell A. Eddy has found it abundant some years on the shores of 

 Saginaw Bay. He took a dozen or more October 3, 1890, and found it 

 abundant again Sept. 26, 1896. Leon J. Cole calls it an abundant fall 

 migrant along the shore of Lake Michigan at Grand Haven, and JNIajor 

 Boies observed it on the east shore of Neebish Island in the spring of 1893. 

 The only record which I have been able to find for any point not on the 

 shore of the Great Lakes is a record of four seen at Ann Arbor, August 26, 

 1899, by Chas. L. Cass. A very late record is that of a male taken by 

 Hirzel at Forestville, Sanilac county, November 24, 1903, and now in the 

 Agricultural College Museum. 



This is a typical beach species and is usually seen feeding at the very 

 edge of the water, following the retreating waves and picking up particles 

 of food, in Michigan mainly insects, left by the water. It rarely visits the 

 upper parts of the beach, and still more rarely, if at all, the grassy or muddy 

 ponds inland. In flight the members of the flock keep close together, yet 

 always preserve about the same distance, and they act practically like a 

 single bird, all rising and falling, turning to right or left, Avheeling or alight- 

 ing with the utmost uniformity and precision. Ordinarily they are one of 

 the least suspicious of the shore birds and may be approached very closely 

 while feeding. 



They nest only in the far north and their eggs have been taken only a few 

 times. The nest is placed on the ground and sometimes at a considerable 

 distance from the water, which is surprising in a species which ordinarily 

 loves to have its feet wet all the time. The eggs are three or four, light 

 olive-brown, spotted and speckled with darker, and average 1.41 by .91 

 inches. 



According to Elliot "its food consists of minute mollusca, Crustacea, 

 worms, insects, and in the far north it has been observed to eat the buds 

 of saxifrage" (North Am. Shore Birds, 1895, 102, 103). 



TECHNIC.VL DESCRIPTION. 



Toes throe in fronf , no trace of a hind toe. Bill about as long as licad, slender, straight 

 black. Adult in sununcr: Upper parts pale rusty with numerous black spots and many 

 featliers tipped witli white; imder parts mainly white, the throat and breast washed with 

 rusty and finely speckled and lined witli blackish; a conspicuous white wing-band formed 

 by tips of greater coverts; basal parts of inner primaries also wliite, tlic outer webs and tips 

 of all blackish, the sliafts wliitc. Ailult in s]iring: Top of head, occiput, back and 

 scapulars, black, coarsely mottled with grayish white, often some feathers showing rusty 

 edgings; Ijack of neck grayish white, more or less striped with pale brown; entire under 

 parts spotless white, the throat and chest often shaded lightly with pale rust-red. Some 



