ALEUTIAN SANDPIPER 165 



•wing, it flew a short distance, with the same peculiar down-curved wings and 

 style of flight as has the spotted sandpiper. 



Hamilton M. Laing (1925) says that "on one occasion one was 

 seen to swim nimbly from one rock to another rather than fly." 



Voice. — Except on its breeding grounds, we considered the Aleutian 

 sandpiper a very quiet and silent bird. Its twittering flight song is 

 a part of the nuptial ceremony, and it was only on its nesting 

 grounds that we heard the loud, musical, flutelike, whistling notes 

 so suggestive of the melodious calls of the upland plover. Doctor 

 Nelson (1887) describes what may be the same notes, as follows: 



While on the wing it uttered a rather low but clear and musical ticeo-tweo- 

 ttceo. When feeding it had a note something like a call of the Colaptes auratus, 

 and which may be represented by the syllables elu-clu-clu- 



Mr. Clark (1910) also says: 



The cry is loud and clear, bearing a striking resemblance to the call of the 

 flicker. 



Field marks. — In winter the Aleutian sandpiper might easily be 

 mistaken for a purple sandpiper, which it closely resembles in appear- 

 ance, haunts, and behavior, but the winter ranges of the two species 

 are widely separated. From the Pribilof sandpiper it differs in being 

 decidedly smaller, and in summer it is much darker, with less rufous 

 above and more black below. 



Fall. — The Aleutian sandpiper withdraws in the fall from the 

 northern portions of its breeding range in Alaska and Siberia, and 

 it may be that the birds which breed farthest north are the ones 

 which migrate farthest south to spend the winter, for the species is 

 resident throughout the year in the Aleutian Islands. In the Nor- 

 ton Sound region it evidently occurs onty as a migrant from northern 

 Alaska and Siberia. Doctor Nelson (1887) says: 



Early in August, however, I was pleased to find it abundant in parties of 

 from five to thirty or forty about outlying islets and along rugged por- 

 tions of the shore. During each of the four succeeding seasons the same 

 experience was repeated, and the last of July or first of August I was certain 

 to find the numbers of them in the situations mentioned, where earlier in the 

 season not one was to be found. They always remained until the middle of 

 October, when the beaches became covered with ice and they were forced to 

 seek a milder climate. The 1st of October, as the first snowstorms begin, these 

 birds desert the more exposed islets and beaches for the inner bays and sandy 

 beaches, where their habits are like those of other sandpipers in similar 

 situations. 



Winter. — This hardy sandpiper is well known to winter regularly 

 and abundantly in the Aleutian and Commander Islands. Accord- 

 ing to notes received from D. E. Brown, it reaches the coast of 

 Washington as early as October 1, where it spends the winter in 

 54267—27 12 



