250 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



evolutions appear often to be made in silence, although it is of course 

 possible that signals, not audible to the human observer, may be 

 given. It has been suggested that telepathy or even that " a common 

 soul " dominating the flock may be the interpretation, but both of 

 these explanations are at present, at least, outside of scientific ken. 

 1 have noticed that birds who do not habitually execute evolutions, 

 like English sparrows and the young of those that are skillful in 

 this direction when adult, as for example, starlings, are much less 

 proficient at this, and it seems to me possible that the whole thing 

 may be accounted for by quickness of observation and of reaction, 

 inherited and acquired. 



Semipalmated sandpipers like other shore birds often stand on one 

 leg and even hop along on it in feeding and they also sleep in this 

 attitude. It is difficult to distinguish these from cripples, and one is 

 easily deceived ; the cripples seem as happy and tireless in feeding as 

 the others. 



William Brewster (1925) thus charmingly describes the habits of 

 this bird in the wet and soft ground at Lake Umbagog : 



Here they trot to and fro, almost as actively arid ceaselessly as so many ants, 

 picking up the inconspicuous worms or larvae from the surface of the ground 

 and seeking them beneath it by thrusting down their sensitive bills quite to 

 the nostrils, after the manner of boring snipe, but less quickly, vigorously, and 

 persistently. They are also given to wading out into shallow water where 

 they pull up good sized masses of aquatic plants, such as Utricularia. By 

 shaking and piercing these with their bills they evidently obtain from them 

 food of some kind, perhaps insect larvae or small Crustacea. 



At high tide on the beaches, when the wet sand with its bountiful 

 food supply is covered, great flocks of this species, together with the 

 least sandpiper, the sanderling, and the semipalmated plover, often 

 spend an hour or more huddled together on the dry sand. Each 

 species keeps more or less separate. The birds generally face the 

 wind, but sometimes they arrange themselves in the lee of bits of 

 driftwood or other obstructions, and " tail out " down wind in long- 

 streamers as it were, each sheltered by the one next to windward. 

 They sleep standing on one or both legs with the bill tucked under 

 the feathers of the back — not " under the wing " as in poems — or 

 they squat down, resting their breasts on the sand. They occasionally 

 seem to yawn by stretching one wing over a leg. They also spread 

 both wings above the back as do many other shore birds, and they 

 flirt the bill nervously from side to side, to relieve their ennui, 

 perhaps shaking the head at the same time. 



Voice. — The varied courtship songs and notes have been described 

 above. Their call note, to my ears, is very much like that of the 

 least sandpiper, but shriller and less melodious. A harsh rasping 

 note and a peeping sound are also given and a low, rolling gossipy 



