202 BULLETIN 142,, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



September 17, 1892) ; New Brunswick (St. Andrews, September 10, 

 1901); and England (Rye Harbor, Sussex, November 11, 1900). 



Egg dates. — Alaska : 27 records, June 9 to August 24 ; 14 records, 

 June 19 to July 2. Arctic Canada : 20 records, June 10 to July 21 ; 

 10 records, June 19 to 26. 



PISOBIA MINUTILLA (Vieillot) 



LEAST SANDPIPER 



HABITS 



Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend 



This least of all our sandpipers is so 'little smaller than the semi- 

 palmated sandpiper and differs so slightly from it in other ways 

 that the two are generally confused in life. Their small size and 

 their notes have given them the familiar name of "peep," but near 

 New York they are also called "oxeye." Who has not been glad- 

 dened by the sight of flocks of these gentle little birds scampering 

 along the beach or diligently feeding in the tidal flats and in the 

 salt marshes ! 



Spring. — The duration of the spring migration is much more brief 

 than that of the autumnal one. The birds are hastening to their 

 breeding grounds and the least sandpiper is only a month in passing 

 through. In New England this is from about May 5 to June 7. At 

 this time the birds are more apt to be found on the beaches than in 

 the fall, although they are found in greatest abundance in the 

 marshes. 



Courtship. — The most noticeable part of the courtship of the least 

 sandpiper is the song. I have observed it on the breeding grounds 

 in Nova Scotia and in Labrador, as well as during the spring migra- 

 tion in New England. The bird springs up into the air on quiver- 

 ing, down-curved wings and circles about, now lower, now higher, 

 reaching at times a height of 50 or more yards. In the air it emits 

 a short sweet trill which is rapidly repeated, and with each song 

 burst the wings are rapidly vibrated. On one occasion in Labrador 

 the bird remained in the air circling and repeatedly trilling for five 

 minutes by the watch, and continued to trill after it had reached the 

 ground. Immediately it was up again, trilling, and, as I left the 

 bog, it. followed me, still trilling. 



This courtship song has been described at great length and with 

 much appreciation by Robert T. Moore (1912) from intimate studies 

 made by him on five nesting birds in the Magdalen Islands, and he 

 has recorded these songs in musical notation. He ranks it high 

 among bird songs and dwells on its tremulous and pathetic qualities. 

 He observed one that rendered its entire song from the ground 



