LEAST SANDPIPER 207 



and their flight as swift. They are fond of bathing like most birds, 

 and of this Mr. Nichols writes in his notes as follows : 



It squats in shallow water, ducking the head under, throwing the water back 

 and fluttering the wings, and at the end of the hath jumps an inch or two 

 into the air with a flutter, apparently to shake the water out of its feathers. 

 Afterwards it usually stands quietly and gives its plumage a thorough preening. 



Voice. — The nuptial song has been described under courtship, but 

 the bird has also a variety of call notes from a simple weep or peep, 

 from which, doubtless, it gets its common name, to a succession of 

 notes more or less complicated. John T. Nichols (1920) has writ- 

 ten at length on the voices of shore birds, and has kindly furnished 

 the following for this article : 



The identification flight-call is a loud diagnostic Jcreep, distinguished by the 

 ge sound from any note of the semipa limited sandpiper ... In flushing, a least 

 sandpiper sometimes utters a string of short unloud notes with or without the 

 ee sound, quce-quee-qiiee-que or queque to be followed almost immediately by 

 some variation of the flight call, as it gets more fully under way. The flight 

 note varies down to a che and cher, not readily, if at all, distinguishable from 

 similar calls of the semipalmated sandpiper . . . When a flock are up and 

 wheeling about a feeding spot to alight there again almost at once, they have 

 sometimes a confiding little note chu chu chu chu, etc. It has also a whinny, 

 a little less clearly enunciated than that of the semipalmated but almost iden- 

 tical with the same. 



Field marks. — The small size of the least sandpiper distinguishes 

 it readily from all the other sandpipers in this country except the 

 semipalmated, with two exceptions to be noted later. As the least 

 is more frequently found on tidal flats in the estuaries and in salt 

 marshes, it is sometimes called the "mud peep," while the semipal- 

 mated, which especially delights in the sand beaches is called the 

 "sand peep." Unfortunately this rule, although of general value, 

 is far from absolute, and the birds often exchange places. The 

 least sandpiper is more often found on the beach in the spring than 

 in the fall. The semipalmation is, of course, a diagnostic mark in 

 the hand, but only under exceptional circumstances can it be seen 

 in the field. The color of the tarsus, however, is distinctive and can 

 be made out in favorable light at a considerable distance. I have 

 always thought it absolutely distinctive, but the published descrip- 

 tions and plates of these two birds are often inaccurate. I have, 

 therefore, compared the legs of both these species, freshly collected, 

 with Ridgway's (1912) "Color Standards and Color Nomenclature." 

 In the semipalmated sandpiper the tarsi of the adults are black and 

 this is also the case in the juvenals except that there is a slight green- 

 ish tinge to be seen on close inspection. In the adult least sandpiper 

 the tarsi are distinctly yellow with a faint greenish cast. They 

 correspond best to the sulphine yellow of Ridgway, while the toes, 

 which shade off a little darker, are citrine. In the juvenal, there is 



