112 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ing ground, calling to other more restless individuals of their kind. This was 

 heard from a single dowitcher on the ground when a flock of lesser yellowlegs 

 was flushed a little way off. When these departed it took wing with more usual 

 dowitcher calls and followed after (Long Island, July). I have on record also 

 a startled chee from an extra tame long-billed dowitcher in Florida, flushed 

 by being almost struck by something thrown at it. 



While observing the shore bird migration on the coast of New Jer- 

 sey, during the last week of May, with Dr. Harry C. Oberholser, we 

 frequently heard the pretty and vivacious flight song of the dow- 

 itcher. It was a sibilant, whistling song, rather loud and with a 

 staccato effect. Doctor Oberholser, whose ears are better than mine 

 now are, wrote down his impressions of it for me. Three short notes 

 were heard separately, tiUIoo, tidilee and tichilee, accented on the 

 first syllable ; the last two were commonest. The complete song 

 sounded like tidilee-ti-tscha-tscha-tscha or tichilee-ti-tsocha-tsoha- 

 tscha, with numerous variations and combinations of the above notes, 

 a very striking song. This is somewhat similar in form to the song 

 of the long-billed dowitcher heard on its breeding grounds and de- 

 scribed by Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) ; it is probably a courtship song. 



Field marks. — The dowitcher when standing is a fat, chunky bird, 

 with short greenish legs and a very long bill, with which it probes 

 perpendicularly. In flight it also appears stout and usually carries 

 its long bill pointed slightly dowmvard ; in adult plumage it appears 

 very dark colored. It has none of the slender appearance of the 

 yellowlegs and its flight is steadier. When seen flying away from 

 the observer the grayish white central band on its back is conspicuous, 

 as are the black and white, barred tail feathers. 



Fall. — The dowitcher is one of the earliest of the fall migrants; 

 probably the first arrivals are birds that, for one reason or another, 

 have failed to raise broods of young, for the time elapsing between 

 the late-spring migration and the early-fall flight is not sufficient for 

 successful breeding. The first adults arrive on Cape Cod early in 

 July; my earliest date is July 4. Adults are common all through 

 July, and I have seen them as late as August 16. The young birds 

 come along later, from August 8 to September 25. While with us 

 they frequent the mud flats and edges of muddy ponds or bays in 

 the marshes ; they are seldom seen on the sandy beaches or far out on 

 the sand flats. They associate freely with the smaller sandpipers, 

 least, and semipalmatcd, or with the semipalmated plover and turn- 

 stones. Often in the great flocks of these small sandpipers a number 

 of dowitchers may be easily recognized by their much larger size and 

 very dark appearance, also by their much longer bills. They are 

 then often concentrated in compact groups or strung out in a long 

 line, close to the edge of the water, probing in the soft mud with 

 quick strokes of their long bills. They are easily approached at such 



