256 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



seasonal ranges. I have not a single spring record for it from any 

 of my correspondents in the interior. Undoubtedly it has been gen- 

 erally overlooked on account of its close resemblance to the semi- 

 palmated sandpiper, an abundant species which few collectors bother 

 to shoot. Its northward migration along the Pacific coast, in April 

 and May, is well known; this flight is mainly coastwise and the 

 birds are often extremely abundant. D. E. Brown, in some notes 

 sent to me from Westport, Washington, refers to- this species as 

 easily outnumbering all other shore-birds combined; they were asso- 

 ciated with red-backs, but outnumbered them 10 to 1. Dr. E. W. 

 Nelson (1887) says of the arrival of these birds in Alaska: 



As the snow disappears on the low ground about Norton Sound, from the 

 10th to the 15th of May each year, and the ponds, still ice-covered, are bordered 

 by a ring of water, these gentle birds arrive on the shore of Bering Sea, in 

 the vicinity of Saint Michael and the Yukon mouth. The advancing season 

 finds their numbers continually augmented until, toward the end of May, 

 they are extremely common and are found scattered everywhere over the 

 mossy flats and low hillsides. Their gentle character and trusting ways 

 render them very attractive to the frequenter of their territory at this season. 



Courtship. — The same gifted writer describes the courtship of 

 this gentle little sandpiper as follows: 



The warm days toward the end of May cause the brown slopes and flats to 

 assume a shade of green, and among the pretty bird romances going on under 

 our eyes none is more charming than the courtship of this delicate sandpiper. 

 They have forsaken the borders of icy pools, and, in twos and threes, are 

 found scattered over the tundra, showing a preference for small dry knolls 

 and the drier tussock-covered parts of the country in the vicinity of damp 

 spots and small ponds. Here the gentle birds may be seen at all times tripping 

 daintily over the moss or in and out among the tufts of grass, conversing 

 with each other in low, pleasant, twittering notes, and never showing any 

 sign of the wrangling so frequent with their kind at this season. The female 

 modestly avoids the male as he pays his homage, running back and forth 

 before her as though anxious to exhibit his tiny form to the best advantage. 

 At times his heart beats high with pride and he trails his wings, elevates and 

 partly spreads his tail, and struts in front of his lady fair in all 'the pompous 

 vanity of a pigmy turkey-cock ; or his blood courses in a fiery stream until, 

 filled with ecstatic joy, the sanguine lover springs from the earth, and, rising 

 upon vibrating wings, some 10 or 15 yards, he poises, hovering in the same 

 position, sometimes nearly a minute, while he pours forth a rapid, uniform 

 series of rather musical trills, which vary in strength as they gradually 

 rise and fall, producing pleasant cadences. The wings of the songster mean- 

 while vibrate with such rapid motion that they appear to keep time with the 

 rapidly trilling notes, which can only be likened to the running down of a 

 small spring and may be represented by the syllables tzr-r-e-e-e, zr-e-e-e-, zr-e-e-e, 

 in a fine high-pitched tone, with an impetus at each "z." This part of the 

 song ended, the bird raises its wings above its back, thus forming a V, and 

 glides slowly to the ground, uttering at the same time, in a trill, but with a 

 deeper and richer tone, a series of notes which may be likened to the syllables 

 tzur-r-r-r, tzur-r-r-r. The word " throaty " may be applied to these latter notes 

 as distinguished from the high-pitched key of the £rst part of the song. 



