14 BULLETIN 146^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



may be seen feeding around some grassy pool beneath, from all appearances 

 entirely unmindful of the ecstatic efforts of her mate. 



Nesting.- -Nothing definite is known of the breeding range or nest- 

 ing habits of the western solitary sandpiper. It is supposed to breed 

 in'^the interior of British Columbia and Alaska. The following ob- 

 servations, made near Circle, Alaska, by Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood 

 (1909) throw some light on the subject: 



Within a radius of several miles from Circle one or more adults were found 

 about almost every woodland swamp. In most cases they acted like parent 

 birds anxious for the safety of their young. Whenever we entered certain pre- 

 cincts, they hovered nervously about, calling loudly, or alighted on nearby 

 trees scolding. The first pair seen near Charlie Creek exhibited such actions 

 on the evening of June 22, and we made a hasty search in the twilight for 

 young birds, but found nothing. The excitement of the old birds seemed to 

 be greatest while we were in a small grassy swamp, so the next day we made 

 a more careful search. The old birds were even more excited than before, and 

 it was some time before we detected that, besides the loud cries ringing all 

 about us, a faint peeping was issuing from several points in the grass. Guided 

 by this scarcely audible peeping, we soon found three downy young birds widely 

 separated and squatting aimlessly in the grass. They are quite small, exactly 

 of a size, and none shows the least indication of growing feathers; evidently 

 they belonged to one clutch, and could not have been out of the eggs more than 

 one or two days. The eggs of this impedes, like those of the European green 

 sandpiper, have been found in the nests of other birds in trees. The small open- 

 ing where the birds were found was bounded on one side by an extensive area 

 grown with willows of relatively small size, but on the other side was only 

 a thin line of willows and then alders, birch, poplars, and heavy spruce, in which 

 probably such birds as olive-backed thrushes, robins, and varied thrushes nested 

 in abundance. Therefore there was ample opportunity for the sandpipers to 

 lay their eggs in the nests of these birds. 



Plumages. — The downy young referred to above are thus described 

 by Kobert Kidgway, (1919) : 



General color of upper parts cinnamon drab, longitudinally varied with 

 brownish black ; forehead and crown with a broad median streak of black ; a 

 sharply defined black loral streak, extending from bill to eye; a narrow black 

 stripe across auricular region (longitudinally), or a black postauricular spot; 

 occiput brown centrally, black exteriorly, the black border sending from each 

 side a forward branch ; an oval patch of brownish black on median portion of 

 rump, this bordered along each side by a stripe of pale dull vinaceous-buff, the 

 two huffy stripes converging or almost uniting both anteriorly and posteriorly ; 

 wings cinnamon drab, margined posteriorly with dull white, the brown portion 

 with several irregular spots or blotches of black ; under parts dull white. 



Subsequent plumages and molts are doubtless similar to those of 

 the eastern race. 



Winter. — As mentioned under the preceding subspecies, we know 

 very little about the winter distribution of the two races. Dr. Frank 

 M. Chapman (192G) says that most of his specimens from Ecuador 

 are of this form, which he calls " a common winter resident from the 



