SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. 



237 



there was our first nest of the Least Sandpiper, a 

 Httle hollow in the northern moss, lined with dry 

 bavberry leaves, and holding four eggs, large 

 for the size of the bird, and wide across, though 

 somewhat pointed. The tiny owners trailed 

 around at our feet in abject despair. Finally we 

 comiironiised by persuading the female to allow 

 me to photograph her on the nest, after which 

 we parted company. 



On another occasion, beside the crude cart- 

 road leading to the fisherman's house where we 

 were staying, a pair of these birds apjieared 

 greatly worried over our ])assing. They ran 



ab(jut. alighted on the wire fence, and scolded 

 plaintively. This set us to searching, but it was 

 some time before I discovered the four tiny 

 voung, very recently hatched, huddled together 

 on the ground among the sparse grass of the 

 adjoining pasture, and a tell-tale egg-shell near 

 by. Little buff-colored balls of down, ornamented 

 with black spots, they were as pretty bird-babies 

 as I ha\e ever seen. Somehow, these episodes 

 with breeding shore birds of Arctic proclivities, 

 in this crisp northern clime, appealed to me 

 with verv sjiecial fascination. 



lliiKHiCKT K. Job. 



RED-BACKED SANDPIPER 

 Pelidna alpina sakhalina ( I'icillot) 



A. O. U. .Xumber 243a See Color Plates 3J, 34 



Other Names. — American Dunlin; lilack-licllied 

 Sandpiper ; Brant-bird ; Red-back ; Red-backed Dunlin ; 

 Lead-back; Ox-bird; Fall Snipe; Crooked-billed Snipe; 

 Crooked-bill; Little Blackbreast ; Winter Snipe; Simple- 

 ton; Stib ; Black-beart Plover (Ontario). 



General Description. — Length, 9 inches. In sum- 

 mer, upper parts chestnut and the lower parts white 

 with a black patch ; in winter, upper parts dark ashy- 

 gray, under parts pale ashy-white. Bill, rather long and 

 ternimal third bent slightly downward. 



Color. — Adults in Summer: Crozvii, back, should rrs, 

 ruiiip, and upper tail-corerts, chestnut, crown, streaked 

 with dusky, rest of feathers of upper parts with 

 dusky centers, many with whitish tips ( especially 

 behind) ; tail, wing-coverts, and secondaries, ashy-gray ; 

 secondaries, broadly n'liitc-iipped, coverts with darker 

 centers ; primaries dusky, some inner ones edged with 

 white at base; sides of head, back of neck, chin, throat, 

 and rest of under parts, white; abdomen, zeith a broad 

 vehety-black patch : other whitish parts above, streaked 

 with pale dusky; bill, dusky-yellow; legs, dark horn- 

 color ; iris, brown with a dusky spot in front. Adults 

 IN Winter: Entire upper parts, dark ashy-gray, lighten- 

 ing over eye and streaked with whitish on back of neck; 



feathers of back, faintly outlined with lighter; wing- 

 coverts and secondaries, more brownish; feathers, 

 darker centrally, secondaries narrowly white-tipped ; 

 primaries, deep dusky, the inner ones whitish at base 

 forming a conspicuous ii'/f/Zr spot: chin, throat, and 

 rest of under parts, pale ashy-white; black area of 

 summer plumage entirely absent ; under parts from 

 throat, obsoletely streaked with dusky ; bill and legs, 

 dusky-greenish ; iris, brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : A hollow in the ground, in 

 or near salt marshes or fresh-water lakes and ponds. 

 Pxcs : 4, pale greenish to brownish-buff, spotted with 

 dull umber, chestnut, and sepia. 



Distribution. — North America and eastern .Asia ; 

 breeds on the northern coast of Siberia west to mouth 

 of the Yenisei, and from Point Barrow to mouth of 

 Yukon, and in Boothia and Melville peninsulas, and 

 northern Ungava ; winters on the Pacific coast from 

 Washington to southern Lower California and from 

 New Jersey (rarely Massachusetts) south to Louisiana 

 and southern Texas, and in Asia from China and Japan 

 to the Alalay Archipelago; rare in migration in the 

 interior of the United States except about the southern 

 end of Lake Michigan. 



.'Mthough the Red-backed Sandpiper is found 

 often in the interior of North America, in New 

 England it is confined mainly to the neighborhood 

 of the sea and largely to the salt marshes, but 

 also frequents sand bars and mud flats. It is an 

 active little bird usually keeping in companies, 

 which run about nimbly and fly very rapidly, 

 performing varied evolutions in concert, as if 

 drilled to act together. In the breeding season 



it has a rather musical flight song, which never 

 is heard except in its northern home, so far as 

 I know. When frightened or flying it has a 

 hoarse, grating note. 



There seem to be two well-defined migration 

 routes of this species : one from Alaska and Si- 

 beria down the Pacific coast of North .America, 

 and one from Hud.son Bay, Ungava, and the 

 lands to the north down the Atlantic coast. 



