LEAST SANDPIPER 203 



within a foot of his hand. " It consisted of a series of trills, which 

 ascended just one octave on a minor chord. The tone quality was 

 pure and sweet and rendered pathetic by the minor chord, which 

 served as its medium." He says of the records he made of the 

 flight songs of three birds that — 



Each in its notes, progressions, and even time is totally different from the 

 others, yet, without sight of the bird, I would instantly recognize them as 

 songs of the least sandpiper. This is due to the fact that the quality of tone is 

 constant in all, being pure and sweet, the tempo is aways extremely fast, the 

 notes being delivered with great rapidity, and the pitch high. Trills and 

 runs are characteristic and make an additional recognition quality. 



All these observations were made on birds that were both incubat- 

 ing and singing. On one occasion only did he see two birds together. 



This flight song piped overhead and was sung over and over again with a 

 tremulous zest. Alternating with it, was repeated for long intervals an ex- 

 cited call of two notes. We glanced up and for the first time beheld two 

 adult least sandpipers together. Alternately they flapped and soared and 

 circled about in rapturous fashion. For several minutes the alternation of 

 song and call continued without break of any kind. Sometimes the song was 

 given three times consecutively and followed by as many as 30 or 40 repetitions 

 of the call, this in turn to be followed by the song again. 



W. E. Saunders (1902) has recorded the courtship as observed by 

 him at Sable Island. He was there between May 16 and 23, too 

 early for nesting. He says : " I found them invariably in pairs, 

 evidently mated, and often sitting so close together that two could be 

 obtained at a single shot if desired." To his ear the song notes re- 

 sembled somewhat those of the spotted sandpiper. He says of the 

 courtship flight: 



Sometimes both birds would be in the air at once, but whether the female 

 gave the note as well as the male, I could not definitely ascertain without 

 shooting the birds, which I was very loath to do. The note would be given 

 continuously for perhaps three or four minutes, during which time the bird 

 flies slowly wilh steady flapping of the wings, mounting in the air gradually 

 until, when watching them in the evening, one loses sight of them in the gloom. 



Nesting. — The least sandpiper makes its nest either in wet grassy 

 or sphagnum bogs close to a pond or tidal water, or on dry uplands, 

 often among low bushes. In either case the nest is a simple affair. 

 P. B. Philipp (1925) describes its method of construction as observed 

 by him in the Magdalen Islands: 



The bird picks out a spot in the wet moss of a bog or in the dry leaves of 

 a ridge, and scratches a shallow hollow in which it sits, and, by rapidly turning, 

 molds a depression of the required depth. Which of the pair does this I have 

 never determined, but the other bird is usually present, standing close to the 

 nest-builder and offering encouragement by a low, rapid twittering. 



The nest depression in the moss is generally lined with dry leaves, 

 although these may be very few in number, and a little dried grass. 



