LEAST SANDPIPER 205 



by these actions but remain quiet, the bird soon returns and walks daintily 

 about, uttering a quickly repeated peep, pee^p, peep, often with such vehemence 

 that the saliva fairly runs from its bill. 



Mr. Moore (1912), however, shot a bird which he thought was 

 both incubating and singing, and it proved to be a female. 



Sometimes both parents show solicitude for the young as in the 

 following case in the Yukon region, reported by Dr. Louis B. 

 Bishop (1900) : 



I came upon a female surrounded by four downy young. Both parents 

 tried time and again the well known wounded-bird tactics to lure me from 

 the spot where the young were hidden in the bunches of grass, and finding 

 this a failure, would circle around me only a few yards off, uttering a plaintive 

 twitter. 



Plumages. — [Author's note: The tiny chick of the least sandpiper 

 is prettily colored as are the young of all the tundra nesting species. 

 The upper parts, crown, back, wings, and thighs, are quite uniformly 

 variegated with rich browns, "bay," "chestnut" and " Sanf ord's 

 brown," through which the black basal down shows in places; this 

 is spotted irregularly, from crown to rump, with small round spots, 

 terminal tufts, of yellowish buff. The forehead and sides of the 

 head and neck are pale buff, with narrow, black frontal, loral and 

 malar stripes. The under parts are pure white. 



Young birds are in juvenal plumage when they arrive here in 

 August and generally do not show much signs of molting before they 

 leave here in September. This plumage is darker and more richly 

 colored above than in the spring adult; the feathers of the crown, 

 back, scapulars and all wing coverts are broadty edged with rich, 

 bright browns, " hazel " or " cinnamon rufous," broadest and bright- 

 est on the back and scapulars; some scapulars are tipped with white; 

 the throat is often faintly, but sometimes not at all, streaked with 

 dusky. A partial post juvenal molt in the fall, involving the body 

 plumage and some of the scapulars and tertials, produces a first 

 winter plumage which can be distinguished from the adult by the 

 retained juvenal wing coverts, scapulars, and tertials. At the first 

 prenuptial molt the next spring young birds become indistinguishable 

 from adults, except for some of the old juvenal wing coverts. 



The complete postnuptial molt of adults begins in August and is 

 mainly accomplished after the birds have migrated. At a partial pre- 

 nuptial molt, mainly in April and May, the adult renews the body 

 plumage and tail and some of the tertials and wnng coverts. Adults 

 in spring are more brightly colored, with more rufous and buffy 

 edgings, and the breast is more distinctly streaked than in fall.] 



Food. — These birds appear to be feeding on small crustaceans and 

 worms on the beaches and on insects and their larvae in the marshes. 

 It is to be hoped that with the increase of the birds the pest of 



