84 BULLETIN 14 6^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



shore affords an ideal background for concealment. William Palmer 

 (1909) brings out the success of this ruse thus: 



While walking along a beach one summer a spotted sandpiper (Act it is 

 macularia) and a single young were noticed some distance ahead. As I 

 approached the place the old bird, with the startled manner characteristic of 

 its kiud at such a time, kept well ahead, but I could not find the other. Going 

 back some distance, I waited and soon saw it again with its parent. I repeated 

 my quest, and again failed to find the youngster. Going back once more and 

 again seeing it rejoin the old bird, I slowly moved forward, keeping my eyes 

 this time very intently on it, and soon picked it up from the sand, an unwilling 

 captive. 



A. A. Saunders gives in his notes a picture of the parental care of 

 the young. The young birds are — 



able to run and follow the parent when about half an hour from the egg 

 (two instances). The parent leads them away and watches over them for 

 a few days after hatching, after which they gradually stray away from 

 her ( ?) care. At Flathead Lake [Montana] one bird hatched her young 

 and led them down the beach, and I followed to see what would happen. 

 When I got too near the mother (?) called Peet! pect! pect! in a loud, 

 sharp call. The young immediately flattened themselves down among the 

 pebbles so effectually I could only find one. I sat down on a log, and after 

 waiting some 20 minutes the parent quieted down — flew to the opposite side 

 of her young from me, turned and faced them, and began to call tootawee, 

 tootawee, tootmcee over and over. The young immediately responded and 

 began a hurried run for the mother (?), calling baby peeps and tumbling over 

 the pebbles in their eagerness. The parent half spread its wings as they 

 arrived and they took shelter beneath, just as chickens do under a hen. 



The period of incubation is 15 days. 



Phunages. — [Author's note: The young spotted sandpiper in the 

 natal down is quite uniformly grizzled or mottled on the upper 

 parts, from crown to rump, with " buffy brown," " wood brown," 

 grayish buff, and black. The forehead is grayish buff, and the 

 entire under parts are white; a narrow black stripe extends from 

 the bill through the eye to the nape; a black patch in the center 

 of the crown extends as an indistinct median stripe down the nape 

 and broadens to a black band along the back to the rump. 



The Juvenal plumage comes in first on the mantle and wings, then 

 on the flanks, breast, and crown, and lastly on the neck, rump, and 

 tail. The upper parts are "light brownish olive," more grayish on 

 the sides of the neck and chest ; the scapulars and upper tail coverts 

 have a subterminal sepia bar and are tipped with pale buff or 

 creamy white; the lesser and median wing coverts are conspicuously 

 barred with pale buff and sepia; the chin, throat, and under ]3arts 

 are white. 



During the fall, beginning late in August, or in September, some 

 of the body plumage, tail and some tertials and wing coverts are 

 molted, producing the first winter plumage. This postjuvenal molt 



