WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER 183 



range. It is given in a very low tone and slow tempo ; the notes are weak and 

 inclined to be squeaky, with a weird dripping quality like the sound of water 

 oozing and dropping in a small cavern. The species appears to flush silently. 



Nesting. — Very little seems to be known and still less has been pub- 

 lished about the nesting habits of the white-rumped sandpiper. In 

 MacFarlane's notes I find brief records of seven nests found by his 

 party on the barren grounds and Arctic coast of Canada, from 1862 to 

 1865. One nest was found on June 21, 1862, 50 miles east of Fort 

 Anderson ; the female and three eggs were taken ; the nest consisted 

 of a few leaves in a small hole in the ground near a small lake. An- 

 other found on June 29, 1863, on the barren grounds, is described as 

 "a mere depression in the ground lined with a few decayed leaves"; 

 the female and four eggs were taken. There is a set of four eggs 

 in the Herbert Massey collection, taken with the parent bird by E. A. 

 Mclllhenny at Point Barrow, Alaska, on June 25, 1898; the nest is 

 described as " a hollow in the moss on top of a ridge on the tundra, 

 lined with dry grass and partly arched over." This is farther west 

 than the species is supposed to breed, but there are several birds 

 in the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences collected there in June, 

 which are in full breeding plumage. 



Mr. Soper found a number of nests near Nettilling Lake, Baffin 

 Island, on which he has sent me the following notes: 



A nest containing four eggs was found on a grassy hummock on the tundra 

 bordering the lake on June 16. Many were subsequently found. The nest is 

 merely a shallow depression on the crown of a. tussock of grass and mosses a 

 few inches above the surrounding mud and water of the tundra. It is sparingly 

 lined with blades of old grass and dead leaves of the dwarf arctic willow. 

 Some are lined exclusively with the dried, oval leaves of Salix herbacea. 

 According to collecting data, both sexes arrive together, with the female almost, 

 if not quite, ready for immediate reproduction, as evidenced by the condition 

 of the ovaries. The nest of four eggs found on June 16 was but four days 

 after the first observed arrivals of the species. 



The female upon one's approach plays the familiar artifice of simulating a 

 prostrated condition, limping and dragging herself along the ground in an 

 effort to attract one's attention from the nest. In this they are bold and fear- 

 less ; and when one sits beside the nest they will frequently run up to within 

 a foot or less of the observer. In photographing nests from a distance of only 

 a few feet, the female will often return to her eggs while one's head is under 

 the dark cloth adjusting the focus. One was so devoted to her eggs that she 

 would run up and peck at my fingers and run over my hand as I extended it 

 toward the nest. This species, when one approaches the nest, usually leaves it 

 when one. is 20 to 25 yards distant and runs along the ground, either directly 

 toward the intruder or a little to one side. Because of its remarkable similarity 

 to the covering of the tundra at this time, this first movement often escapes 

 one, and consequently when the bird is first observed fluttering along the 

 ground one naturally imagines himself near the nest, when, in reality, it may be 

 20 or 30 yards away. This ruse is a clever one, and no doubt would often 

 save the nest from violation. The nests are easily found by retiring and watch- 

 ing the female with the glasses. They usually return to the nest with little 



