2 BULLETIN 146; UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ceaselessly rising and flitting on ahead, uttering tlieir peet-tveet calls, and also 

 making a faint yet noticeable rustling sound with their wings. Thus driven 

 they sometimes alighted, one after another, on some muddy point, until as 

 many as seven assembled within the space of a few square feet. Nevertheless, 

 they were for the most part paired, and the mated birds almost invariably 

 kept together, and apart from all the rest when on wing. 



The migration in the interior seems to be at least two or three 

 weeks earlier. E. W. Hadeler tells me that in Lake County, Ohio, 

 one is almost sure to find it, on the river where the sewer empties 

 into it, between April 22 and May 18. Many must pass through 

 the inland States in April, for Edward S. Thomas has recorded it 

 in Ohio as early as March 30 and calls the average date of arrival 

 April 15. A. G. Lawrence has recorded it in southern Manitoba as 

 early as April 29 and it reaches its northernmost breeding grounds 

 in Mackenzie and Alaska soon after the middle of May. 



Courtship. — Dr. John B. May has sent me the following notes on 

 a courtship display of this species which he saw in New Hampshire : 



Paddling down river one day, probably between the 8th and 15th of June, I 

 saw several pairs of solitary and spotted sandpipers where the muddy banks 

 were exposed, near a swamp where bitterns breed. Both species were ap- 

 pai'ently courting, making considerable noise and shov>'ing their white feathers 

 in display. Every little while one of the solitary sandpipers would fly up 

 slowly into the air, only rising a few feet, and rising slowly with rapidly 

 beating or quivering wings, giving a twittering whistle and spreading the 

 tail so that the outer white feathers were very conspicuous. Then it would 

 drop back to the mud again near where it rose. The time taken in rising a 

 few feet would have carried it some distance with its ordinary flight. 



Nesting. — The nesting habits of this sandpiper long remained 

 a mystery or w^ere misunderstood. In looking over the literature on 

 the subject I came across no less than seven published records of 

 nests found on the ground and said to be positively identified as 

 this species. These were all published prior to the discovery of the 

 now well-known habit of nesting in the deserted nests of passerine 

 birds. Not a single one of these records seems to be substantiated by 

 an available specimen of the parent bird. The solitary sandpiper 

 may occasionally nest on the ground, but it is yet to be proven. 



To Evan Thomson belongs the credit for making the interesting 

 discovery of the tree-nesting habit. This historic incident is de- 

 scribed by J. Fletcher Street (1923) as follows: 



Mr. Thomson many years ago took up a quarter section of land under the 

 Canadian homestead act, built himself a log cabin at the edge of a muskeg, 

 and commenced the arduous task of clearing the land. Living alone in this 

 wilderness without neighbors and possessing a keen love for nature and a 

 particular interest in the abundant wild life about him, he came to devote 

 his spare moments to the study of birds, counting as his immediate associates 

 such hermit species as the great-horned owl, long-eared owl, saw-whet owl, 

 goshawk, and a large host of water fowl and waders. Seated one day before 



