STILT SANDPIPER 127 



Coues (1878) at first mistook birds of this species for dowitchers 

 and did not recognize them until he had them in his hands. He saj^s : 



They gathered in the same compact groups, waded about in the same sedate, 

 preoccupied manner, fed with the same motion of the head, probing obliquely 

 in shallow water with the head submerged, were equally oblivious of my 

 approach, and when wounded swam with equal facility. The close structural 

 resemblances of the two species are evidently reflected in their general 

 economy. 



Mr. Nichols says in his notes: • 



On alighting the stilt sandpiper sometimes lifts its wings halfway for an 

 instant, a mannerism characteristic of the tattler group, which it would seem 

 to have acquired from its associate, the yellowlegs. 



Voice. — Following are Mr. Nichols's notes on this subject : 



The common flight note of the stilt sandpiper is very like the single whistled 

 wliu of the lesser yellowlegs, but recognizably lower pitched and hoarser, at 

 times with a quaver, whr-r-u, and varying down to a shorter, less loud whrug. 

 An unloud, reedy sher has been heard from two birds when flushing. 



Though with different feeding habits, stilt sandpiper, dowitcher, and lesser 

 yellowlegs frequent the same grounds, associate very freely on the wing, and 

 all three have a very similar flight note, though .sufficiently different for identi- 

 fication. Perhaps the very lack of close relationship in these birds* has facili- 

 tated convergence of their habits and calls, and it is not unreasonable to sup- 

 pose that close association, even imitation, has played some part in bringing 

 about the likeness of their voices. The greater yellowlegs differs more from 

 the lesser, both in flight note and flight habits, than do these other two unre- 

 lated species. 



Field marks. — I quote again from Mr. Nichols's notes on field 

 characters, as follows: 



On the wing the stilt sandpiper resembles the lesser yellowlegs closely. Its 

 smaller size is scarcely appreciable, even in a flock of yellowlegs, the members 

 of which will usually be at slightly varying distances from the observer. 

 Adults have appreciably darker (barred) lower parts, and young birds, par- 

 ticularly, are greyer above than yellowlegs at the same season in this latitude. 

 The somewhat shorter legs do not project so far beyond the tail, but the propor- 

 tionately longer bill (with slight apparent drop at its tip) is the stilt sand- 

 piper's best field mark. Its bill is proportionately longer even than that of 

 the greater yellowlegs, with which this species is unlikely to be confused, vary- 

 ing as it does away from the lesser yellowlegs in an opposite direction, both as 

 regards size and in other subtle characters. The head and neck of a yellowlegs 

 are more " shapely," differing in this respect somewhat as a black duck differs 

 from sea ducks. 



On the ground the stilt sandpiper stands lower than a yellowlegs, having 

 decidedly shorter legs, and correspondingly higher than our other shore birds 

 of the same size. The color of its legs, dull olive green, is usually diagnostic. 

 The legs are sometimes yellowish, and very rarely yellow, only one such having 

 come under the writer's personal notice, a young bird in southward migration. 

 The name "greenleg" is often used for it by Long Island baymeu, who also 

 suspect it of being a cross between yellowlegs and dowitcher. At sufficiently 

 close range the marginatum of the feathers of the upper parts is quite unlike 

 the spotting of the yellowlegs' plumage. 



