BAIRD SANDPIPER 195 



this on one occasion and failing to find the eggs, after flushing the bird two 

 or three times I discovered that I had walked on the eggs, though I had been 

 looking for them most carefully. 



Mr. Brooks (1915) writes: 



Two nests were found, each containing four eggs and about one quarter in- 

 cubated on June 12 and 14, 1914. Murdoch found them nesting rather later 

 than other waders at Point Barrow, but my experience at Demarcation Point 

 was quite the opposite, for here they were the first to breed. A female taken 

 June 2, had a fully formed and colored egg about ready to lay. Both of the 

 above nests were on dry, well-drained tundra near the bases of knolls. The 

 nests were like the other sandpipers, and lined with dry willow leaves, but the 

 cavities were less deep than those of the semipalmated sandpiper. 



The female was on one nest and the male on the other. The former left the 

 nest when I was some distance away and flying directly toward me alighted 

 within a few feet. While I was a1 the nest she walked hurriedly about i 

 by constantly uttering a plaintive weet-weet-weet always repeated three times. 

 Occasionally she would take a short flight about me and utter a note very 

 similar to the rattling call of the pectoral sandpiper. The male when disturbed 

 acted quite differently. He sat closer and on leaving the nest showed the 

 greatest concern, dragging a •'broken" wing in the most distressing manner. 

 In neither case was the mate about as frequently occurs with the semipalmated 

 sandpiper. 



Mr. Dixon (1917) says: 



At Griffin Point, less than 50 miles to the eastward of Demarcation Point, 

 the first set of eggs (fresh) was taken on June 24. The last set was found 

 July 11, with the four eggs nearly ready to hatch. Murdoch speaks of the 

 nests being well concealed and always bidden in the grass. In those nests 

 which we found, no attempt had been made at such concealment, as they were 

 placed absolutely in the open, with nothing to cover or conceal the eggs at all, 

 and the nests so shallow that the tops of the eggs were almost or quite level 

 with the surrounding grass. Far from being conspicuously exposed thereby, 

 however, the eggs were shielded from discovery in the most effective manner 

 possible, for in color and markings they blended so perfectly with the brown 

 tundra that a person could easily look directly at them from a distance of 6 

 feet and still not be able to see them. 



This method of nesting seems to be the most effective way of escaping one 

 great danger at least, namely, the notice of the countless jaegers, both parasitic 

 and pomarine. These robbers subsist almost entirely during the breeding period 

 on the young and eggs of other birds, and cruise continually back and forth 

 over the sandpipers' nesting ground, looking for the least telltale feather, bit of 

 wind-blown down, or other object which might afford a clue to the whereabouts 

 of a nest. 



Herbert W. Brandt found only one nest of the Baird sandpiper 

 near Hooper Bay, Alaska, which he tells me — 



Was on a dry mossy ridge amid the dunes and was partially concealed by the 

 surrounding curly grass. It was flimsily constructed of grass steins and filled 

 with a scant handful of small leaves of the dwarf birch and blueberry, together 

 with a few adjacent reindeer-moss stems. The measurements of this nest were: 

 Inside diameter 2% inches, and depth perhaps 2 inches. 



