194 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Grinnell (1900) records it at the Kowak River, Alaska, on May 20. 

 Joseph Dixon (1917) says: 



On May 31, 1914, at Griffin Point, Arctic Alaska, the first pair of Baird 

 sandpipers for the season were noted feeding along the rim of a frozen tundra 

 pond. The weather had turned bitterly cold during the previous night, and 

 as a result the newly formed ice on the ponds was thick enough to support a 

 man. Strictly speaking, there was no night at this date, for the two months 

 of continuous daylight had already begun ; so in a short time the sandpipers 

 were bustling about picking up the mosquito and other pupae which were 

 being washed out by a newly-born stream that gurgled under the snow and 

 ice on its way down to the frozen lagoon. 



Courtship. — Two somewhat different accounts of the courtship of 

 this species have been published. W. Sprague Brooks (1915), who 

 found this bird breeding at Demarcation Point, Alaska, writes : 



Only once did I note any courtship activity. On this occasion (May 24), 

 the male would fly a few feet above the female, while she rested on the 

 ground, with quick erratic wing strokes suggesting a nighthawk. Frequently 

 he would alight and raise the wings high over the back as a gull does before 

 folding them. Then with the forearms perpendicular, the primaries would be 

 slowly raised and lowered like a pump handle, generally lowered to right 

 angles with the forearms, sometimes lower. Not a sound was uttered. 



Alfred M. Bailey (1926), whose observations were made at Cape 

 Prince of Wales, Alaska, says: 



Cutting down the opposite side of the ridge, I heard many calls which re- 

 minded me of home in the early spring, for the combined totals sounded like 

 the singing of many little grass frogs in a meadow pond. It was the call, or 

 rather the " spring song," of the Baird sandpiper. I soon flushed a little 

 female, which fluttered away uttering cries of alarm. I concealed myself, 

 and she soon returned, the male also hovering about, making his little frog- 

 like peep. At times he would rise high in the air, in the way so characteristic 

 of male sandpipers, give forth his song, and sail down to perch. 



Nesting. — MacFarlane's notes mention seven nests found in the 

 vicinity of Franklin Bay, but very few data were given ; " on June 

 24, 1864, a nest containing four eggs was found in the Barren 

 Grounds, in a swampy tract between two small lakes, and was com- 

 posed of a few decayed leaves placed in a small cavity or depression 

 in the ground, shaded by a tuft of grass." John Murdoch (1885) 

 says: 



The nest was always well hidden in the grass and never placed in marshy 

 ground or on the bare black parts of tundra, and consists merely of a slight 

 depression in the ground, thinly lined with dried grass. All the eggs we 

 found were obtained from the last week in June to the first week of July, a 

 trifle later than the other waders. The sitting female when disturbed exhibits 

 the greatest solicitude, running about with drooping, outspread wings, and loud 

 outcry, and uses every possible wile to attract the intruder from the eggs. 

 The nest is so well concealed and forms so inconspicuous an object that the 

 only practical way to secure the eggs is to withdraw to one side and allow the 

 sitting bird to return, carefully marking where she alights. Having done 



