SPOTTED SANDPIPER 81 



Nesting. — The breeding range of the spotted sandpiper, extend- 

 ing over a vast area of diversified land, ranging in altitude from 

 sea-level to 14,000 feet, and including both arid and well-watered 

 country, makes necessary in the bird a wide degree of adaptability 

 in the choice of its nesting site. Few birds show a greater varia- 

 tion in this respect and among the places which .the bird selects to 

 lay its eggs there is but one point in common — the proximity of 

 water. 



The following quotations bring out the extreme variety of nesting 

 sites : Mearns (1890) writing of the bird in Arizona says : " These birds 

 were apparently breeding at a small lake, in a crater-like depression 

 at the summit of a volcanic peak arising near the western base 

 of the San Francisco cone, the lake being at an altitude of from 

 10,000 to 10,500 feet." Shick (1890) reports the bird in New Jersey 

 as breeding " in the higher parts of the island, generally on a sandy 

 knoll in the high, rank sedge grass," and Audubon (1840), speaks 

 of the nests " in Labrador, where, in every instance, they were con- 

 cealed under ledges of rocks extending for several feet over them, so 

 I probably should not have observed them, had not the birds flown 

 off as I was passing." He also speaks, quoting Nuttall, of "their 

 eggs laid in a strawberry bed." Dwight (1893) records a nest 

 " found in an odd situation at Tignish [Prince Edward Island]. It 

 was under a decayed log in a boggy slope, and was carefully lined 

 with bits of rotten wood." 



In the use of material to construct or line its nest the bird shows 

 nearly as much variation as in the choice of the nesting site and it 

 may be stated roughly that the more northerly the latitude of the 

 breeding ground, the bulkier is the nest. Audubon (1840) says, 

 speaking of the nests found in Labrador: 



Tliey were more bulky and more neatly constructed than any that I have 

 examined southward of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. * * * These nests [those 

 in Labrador] were made of dry moss, raised to the height of from 6 to 9 

 inches, and well finished within with slender grasses and feathers of the 

 eider duck. 



Brewster (1925) speaks of the bird as: 



Especially given to breeding on small islands in Lake Umbagog [Maine], 

 scarce one of which is left untenanted by them at the right season or resorted 

 to by more than a single pair. Their eggs, almost invariably four in number, 

 are usually laid during the last week of May, in saucer-shaped hollows scraped 

 in surface soil, and thinly lined with dry grass. * * * if the island be tree- 

 less and ledgy, the nest is likely to be on or near the most elevated or central 

 part, and more or less well concealed by grass or other lowly vegetation. But if 

 all the ground, not subject to inundation, be densely wooded, the spot where the 

 bird has hidden her treasures is seldom far back from the shore, and perhaps 

 scarce above highwater mark, usually where driftwood has accumulated, or 

 beneath the leafy branch of some outstanding alder or Cassandra bush. In 



