200 MICaiGAN BIRD LIFE 



110. Spotted Sandpiper. Actitis macularia (Linn.). (263) 



Synonyms: Sandj^eep, Sand-snipe, River-snipe, Tip-up, Teeterer, Teeter-tail, Peet- 

 weet. Peep. — Tringa macularia, Linn., 1766. — Totanus macularius, Temm., 1815. — 

 Tringoides macularius, Gray, 1849, and many others. — Actitis macularia, Naum., 1836, 

 A. O. U. Check-list, 1895, and most recent authors. 



Plate XI. 



The adult is recognizable as the only 'sandpiper whose under parts are 

 thickly marked with clean cut round spots or "polka-dots" of dark brown 

 or black on a nearly white ground color. In addition, the hving bird is 

 always bobbing and balancing as it sit or runs, and when in flight always 

 shows conspicuous white bars on the wings. 



Distribution. — North and South America, from Alaska south to southern 

 Brazil. Breeds throughout temperate North America, less commonly 

 on the Pacific coast. Occasional in Europe. 



This is the common Sandpiper or Tip-up of streams and ponds during 

 the summer, and is almost universally distributed, from the southern 

 border to Lake Superior. It never occurs in flocks, always singly, in pairs, 

 or at most in little family parties of five or six, the young then distinguish- 

 able by the unspotted breast. It is a late comer in spring, seldom arriving 

 before the first of May, sometimes not until the middle of the month; 

 and rarely remains after the middle of September. It is oftenest seen 

 along the edges of small ponds and streams, but occurs also along the 

 sandy beaches of the Great Lakes, and about the httle mud-holes and 

 ditches in upland pastures far from any large body of water. 



It nests almost anywhere on the ground; not always near the water, 

 but in pasture, wheatfield, sand-bank, or in the wrack along the shore. 

 The nest is often well built, but at other times is hardly more than a hollow 

 scraped in the ground, with a few grass stems between the eggs and the 

 soil. Eggs are rarely found, even in the southern counties, before the 

 third week in May, and the larger number appear to be laid between the 

 first and fifteenth of June. Mr. E. A. DooHttle records three nests of four 

 eggs each, found June 28, July 2, and July 5, 1906, on Grand Island, Lake 

 Superior. He considered these to be second sets, but if so it would not 

 indicate second broods but only that the first set of eggs had been lost by 

 accident and the birds had made a second trial. Possibly no part of the hfe 

 history of our common birds has been so much neglected as this question 

 of second broods, and careful studies in this direction would well repay 

 the investigator. The eggs are almost invariably four in number, seldom 

 three or five, and are buffy or soiled white, spotted and speckled with 

 brown and black. They average 1.25 by .90 inches. 



The characteristic note of the bird is usually written "pect-weet" and 

 when the bird is alarmed or is calhng anxiously to its mate or young it 

 sounds like p'weet'-p'weet'-p'weet'. When followed along the shore 

 the bird flies ahead 30 to 50 yards at a time, and almost always prefers 

 to fly out over the water rather than over the sand. After being followed 

 some Uttle distance it is Ukely to turn back, making a larger loop than 

 usual, and return to that part of the shore from which it was first driven. 

 It often alights on stumps, fence-posts and rails, as well as on boulders 

 and small rocks; and wherever it may be it keeps up the constant balancing, 

 teetering motion, which is by no means confined to this species, yet is carried 

 to such an extreme as to have given the bird several of its vernacular names. 



