80 BULLETIN 14 6^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



display by a bird proved by dissection to be a female, casts doubts on 

 all records of courtship based on sight identification and raises the 

 question as to the respective roles played by the sexes in the home- 

 life of the species. 



Bradford Torrey (1885), assuming the bird to be a male, speaks of 



A spotted sandpiper, whose capers I amused myself with watching, one day 

 last June, on the shore of Saco Lake. As I caught sight of him, he was 

 straightening himself up, with a pretty, self-conscious air, at the same time 

 spreading his white-edged tail, and calling, tweet, tweet, tioeet. Afterwards he 

 got upon a log, where, with head erect and wings thrown forward and downward, 

 he ran for a yard or two, calling as before. This trick seemed especially to 

 please him, and was several times repeated. He ran rapidly, and with a comical 

 prancing movement ; but nothing he did was half as laughable as the behavior 

 of his mate, who all this while dressed her feathers without once deigning to 

 look at her spouse's performance. 



Whittle (1922) describes a similar action of a bird observed in 

 Montana on May 29 : 



One of the birds, judged to be a male, was seen standing on a long, inclined 

 timber, while another, presumed to be a female, fed close by along the shore. 

 The male first walked the length of the timber and then flew to another one, 

 where he depressed and spread his tail, and, without teetering, stalked slowly 

 along its entire length, with head bent low. 



Lewis O. Shelley (1925) reports from New Hampshire a courtship 

 display which differs from the two previous ones. Here again the 

 respective sexes are assumed : 



A female sandpiper came running along the brook, occasionally stopping to 

 pick up an insect and teeter, then run on again. Behind her were two males, 

 the first strutting along, looking much like a goose, craning his neck up, swelling 

 out his throat drooping his wings, and spreading his tail ; the second kept well 

 to the rear, and did nt) strutting. 



Every time the female stopped for a second, or slowed, the male would dart 

 past her and stop, throw his head higher, and make a fump, fump, fump, in his 

 throat. If that failed to attract her attention, he would again pass her and 

 alternately spread wings and tail. This performance went on all the afternoon, 

 until almost dusk. 



This observation describes a courtship in which the behavior of the 

 aggressive bird corresponds closely, especially in the movements of the 

 head, with the action of the bird noted in the next quotation — a bird 

 proved by dissection to be a female. 



A. J. Van Rossem (1925) gives the following extract from Dr. 

 Loye Miller's notebook : 



Altitude, 9,000 feet; Mammoth Lakes, Inyo County, Calif.; July 4, 1923: 

 [spotted] sandpipers are just beginning to pair, and several seen in courting 

 flights. One especially active bird was shot and proved to be a female. She 

 ca'me to an imitation of the call — soared over a fallen log before alighting on it. 

 She then ruffed out the feathers and strutted like a turkey cock, with head 

 thrown back. The ova were the size of buckshot. 



