274 BULLETIN 142, TMrrKI) STATUS NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ber and October, after the adults have gone. The earlier migrants 

 are generally in small flocks or little groups, but the late storms often 

 bring along immense flocks, which settle on the beaches in dense 

 masses or sweep along between the crests of the waves in great 

 clouds. 



The sanderling is a common migrant, sometimes abundant, 

 throughout the interior east of the Rocky Mountains, coming along 

 at about the same dates as on the xVtlantic coast. Prof. William 

 Rowan tells me of a bird he shot in Alberta on November 8, 1902, that 

 was feeding with a Baird sandpiper '"on the ice of a completely 

 frozen lake." It is a common migrant on the Pacific coast at about 

 the same dates as elsewhere. D. E. Brown (notes) records it at 

 Grays Harbor, "Washington, as late as December 20, 1917. 



Game. — In the old days, before the shooting of small shore birds 

 was prohibited by law, sanderlings ranked as game birds among the 

 beach gunners. They were popular because they were so abundant 

 and so tame that they could be shot in large numbers, especially 

 when flying in large flocks. They are exceedingly fat in the fall 

 and are delicious to eat. A favorite method of shooting them was 

 to dig a hole in the sand of the beach, as near the water as prac- 

 ticable, in which the gunner could hide and shoot into the flocks as 

 they flew by. Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1905) tells of a man who, 

 in 1872, "saw two baskets, each holding half a bushel and rounded 

 full of these birds," shot by one man between tides. 



Winter. — The winter home of the sanderling is extensive. A few 

 birds sometimes spend the winter as far north as Massachusetts. 

 They are common on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from North Caro- 

 line southward, as well as on the Pacific coast up to central Cali- 

 fornia at least. From these northern points the winter range ex- 

 tends southward to central Argentina and Chile, and even farther 

 south. On the w r est coast of Florida, where I spent the winter of 

 1924-25, sanderlings were common all winter, associating with red- 

 backed sandpipers and other small waders on the extensive sand 

 flats, or with knots and piping plovers on the beaches. It was inter- 

 esting to note how tame they were on the protected bathing beaches 

 and how wild they were elsewhere. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Cosmopolitan; breeding in Arctic or subarctic regions 

 and wintering mainly south of 40 degrees north latitude. 



Breeding range. — In North America the breeding range of the 

 sanderling extends north to Alaska (Point Barrow) ; northern 

 Franklin (Price of Wales Strait, Bay of Mercy, and probably Win- 

 ter Harbor) ; northern Grant Land (Floeberg Beach) ; Grinnell 

 Land; northern Greenland (Thank God Harbor, Stormkap, and 



