SPOTTED SANDPrPEE 83 



sometimes they are finely and evenly sprinkled with small spots; 

 and very rarely the markings are concentrated at the larger end. 

 The markings are mostly in very dark browns, " seal brown," " clove 

 brown," and " blackish brown," and rarely as light as " Mars brown " 

 or " russet." The underlying markings are generally lacking or in- 

 conspicuous, but some handsome eggs are blotched with " lavender 

 gray," " p'allid purple drab," or " brownish drab." The measure- 

 ments of 88 eggs, in the United States National Museum, average 32 

 by 23 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 34 

 by 25, 29 by 23, and 33 by 20 millimeters.] 



Young. — The young spotted sandpiper furnishes an instance of 

 an ancestral habit springing into action almost at the moment of 

 hatching. When no larger than the ^gg from which they have just 

 stepped they run over the sand teetering their tail in the manner of 

 their parents. My notes mention a little bird, no more than a tiny 

 ball of fluff, which stood on my hand waving up and down the 

 feathery plumes of its infinitesimal tail. 



Wilson (1832) says: " The young, as soon as they are freed from 

 the shell, run about constantly wagging the tail," and Nuttall (1834) 

 speaks of " the habit of balancing or wagging the tail, in which 

 even the young join as soon as they are fledged." 



Another example of the precociousness of the fledgling sandpiper 

 is its ability to swim while still in the down. G. M. Sutton (1925) 

 speaks of the habit thus : 



Upon several occasions within the writer's experience downy young of 

 the spotted sandpiper, when closely pursued, have taken to the water, where 

 they swam lightly although not very rapidly in making an escape. 



Dr. C. W. Townsend (1920) cites a case in which a young bird, 

 evidently in juvenal plumage, swam under water : 



In Labrador I caught a nearly full-grown young still unable to fly and put 

 it in a small river. It at once dove and swam under water for a distance 

 of 3 or 4 feet, using for propulsion its wings and probably its feet, although 

 I could not be sure of the latter point. It then rose to the surface and swam 

 to the opposite side like a little duck and walked out on the sand, where the 

 mother was anxiously calling. 



Aretas A. Saunders also mentions in his notes a case of diving : 



Young birds when away from the parent and threatened with danger often 

 take to water and dive and swim under water, using the wings to help swim. 

 At such times the down is covered with air bubbles, which helps keep them 

 dry and gives them a silvery appearance. Once I pursued a young bird I 

 wished to band, and it did this so many times that it became wet in spite of 

 the air bubbles, and in fact was quite chilled through for a time. 



More commonly the method of escaping danger adopted by the 

 young sandpipers is to lie motionless on the beach, where a pebbly 



