SANDERLING 277 



Late dates of fall departure are : Alaska, Demarcation Point, 

 August 30; Mackenzie, Fort Franklin, September 16; Alberta, 

 Beaverhill Lake, November 8; Colorado, Loveland, September 30, 

 and Pueblo, October 1; Manitoba, Margaret, October 20, and Lake 

 Manitoba, November 7; North Dakota, Grafton, September 14; Ne- 

 braska, Lincoln, October 4 ; Wisconsin, Lake Mills, October 3 ; Iowa, 

 Burlington, October 15, and National, October 29; Ontario, King- 

 ston, October 15, Point Pelee, October 16, and Ottawa, October 22; 

 Michigan, Ann Arbor, October 26, Portage Lake, November 5, and 

 Forestville, November 24; Ohio, Cedar Point, October 21, Lakeside, 

 October 29, and Columbus, November 7; Illinois, LaGrange, Octo- 

 ber 29, and Chicago, November 3; Franklin, Bay of Mercy, August 

 30 ; Prince Edward Island, North River, October 30 ; Quebec, Quebec 

 City, November 12; and Maine, Portland, November 25. 



Casual records. — In spite of its wide distribution the sanderling 

 is not frequently detected outside of its normal range. Although but 

 a short distance from the coast, there are only five records for the 

 vicinity of Washington, D. C. (September, 1874, October 24, 1885, 

 September 22, 1894, September 26-30, 1898, and September 27, 1898). 

 It has been taken once in Kansas (Lawrence, October 7, 1874). There 

 also is a record for the Hawaiian Islands (Hauai in October, 1900) 

 and one in Haiti (Gaspar Hernandez, March 4, 1916). 



Egg dates. — Greenland: six records, June 29 to July 7. Grinnell 

 Land: one record, June 24. Arctic Canada: two records, June 18 

 and 29. 



LIMOSA FEDOA (Linnaeus) 



MARBLED GODWIT 



HABITS 



Next to the long-billed curlew and the oyster catchers, this is the 

 largest of our shore birds. For that reason and for other reasons 

 it is rapidly disappearing, and before many years it ma}'' join the 

 ranks of those that are gone but not forgotten. Although shy at 

 times, it is often foolishly tame and is then easily slaughtered. It is 

 large enough to appeal to the sportsman as legitimate game and it 

 makes a plump and toothsome morsel for the table. But, worst of 

 all, its breeding grounds on the prairies and meadows of the central 

 plains are becoming more and more restricted by the encroachments 

 of agriculture; the wide-open solitudes will soon be only memories 

 of the past. 



In Audubon's (1840) time this was an abundant species and 

 much more widely distributed than it is to-day. He writes : 



On the 31st of May, 1S32, I saw an immense number of these birds on an 

 extensive mud bar bordering one of the Keys of Florida, about '! miles south 

 of Cape Sable. When I landed with my party the whole, amounting to some 

 . 54267—27 19 



