78 BULKETIN 14 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



County, September IT; Ohio, Columbus, September 9, Indiana, La- 

 fayette, September 10; Illinois, Chicago, September 28, and Beach, 

 October 2 ; Missouri, Independence, September 15 ; Kentucky, Bowl- 

 ing Green, September 7; Quebec, Magdalen Islands, September 13, 

 and Port Burwell, September 28 ; Maine, Cape Elizabeth, September 

 13 ; Massachusetts, Nantucket, September 8, Plum Island, September 

 15, Monomoy Island, September 19, and Cape Cod, September 24; 

 Rhode Island, Middletown, September 10, Newport, September 15, 

 and Compton, September 23; Connecticut, New Haven, September 

 30; New York, Orient Point, September 8, Rockaway, September 

 13, and Mastic, October C; Lesser Antilles, Barbados, October 6; 

 Costa Rica, San Jose, October 8; and Panama, Gatun, October 18. 



Casual records. — The buff-breasted sandpiper has been recorded as 

 taken once at Cardenas, Cuba (Gundlach). There are fifteen or 

 sixteen records for the British Isles, all being for the period from 

 July to September, except one, taken in May, 1829, at Formby, 

 Lancashire. It also has been recorded from Abbeville, Picardy, 

 France (Dalgleish) ; and from the Province of Owari, Japan 

 (Stejneger). A record of this species from Heligoland, May 9, 1847, 

 is considered by Seebohn as possibly T. subminuta. 



Egg Dates. — Arctic coasts of Canada and Alaska : 37 records, June 

 1 to July 18 ; 19 records, June 28 to July 3. 



ACTITIS MACULARIA (Linnaeus) 

 SPOTTED SANDPIPER 



HABITS 



Contrilmted ly Winsor Marrett Tyler 



The spotted sandpiper is one of the successful species of birds. 



The old writers, speaking of a time when the surface of the country 

 was very different from at present, are in accord as to the abundance 

 of this bird in North America. Wilson (1832) refers to it as "very 

 common"; Nuttall (1834) says it is "one of the most familiar and 

 common of all the NeAv England marsh birds"; and Audubon (1840) 

 reports it " quite abundant along the margins of the Mississippi, the 

 Ohio, and their tributaries," and " on the island of Jestico, in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, about 20 pairs had nests and eggs, * * * 

 and the air was filed with the pleasant sound of their voices." 



At the present time we find the bird apparently little diminished in 

 numbers. In the numerous local lists published from every joart of 

 the country the spotted sandpiper almost always has a place. Nota- 

 tions such as " seen daily throughout the summer " or " common along 

 the streams" indicate the wide distribution and abundance of the 



