86 BULKETIN 14 6;, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A complete list of the insects which form the spotted sandpiper's 

 diet, could one be compiled, would doubtless be a very long one, 

 comprising as it would both marine and land insects. The wide 

 range of the bird's choice of food is shown by the following quota- 

 tions which prove definitely that it is a very beneficial species to the 

 agriculturalist. 



E. H. Forbush (1925), speaking of the bird's habit of frequenting 

 cultivated fields, says : 



They feed largely on locusts, grasshoppers and caterpillars, such as cut- 

 worms, cabbage worms and army worms, also beetles, grubs and other pests 

 of cultivated lands. 



H. K. Job (1911) writes: 



The usual food of most species of this class [shore birds] is aquatic insect 

 life of all sorts. This is in part the diet of the spotted sandpiper. But as it is 

 also a bird of field and pasture, its range of insect food is very wide, including 

 grasshoppers and locusts. Probably almost anything in the insect line is grist 

 for its hopper, and it is a most useful bird. 



Austin H. Clark (1905a) furnishes the following unusual obser- 

 vation : 



While on the island of St. Vincent, West Indies, last October, I observed a 

 number of our shore birds feeding on the young of a small fish known as the 

 " tri tri " {Sicydium phimicri), which were at that time ascending the Richmond 

 River, near which I was staying, by thousands. The land about the lower 

 reaches of this river was laid completely bare by the recent eruptions of the 

 Soufrlere, and in its present state proves very attractive to all the species of 

 shore birds which visit the island during the migrations. Those observed or 

 proved by dissection to be eating the young tri tri (which were at that time 

 from half an inch to an inch and a quarter long) were * * * solitary sand- 

 pipers {Helodromas soUtarius), and spotted sandpipers (Actitis macularia). 

 All but the last two kept near the mouth of the river, or on the flat lands along 

 its lower reaches ; the solitary sandpiper followed the stream up into what were 

 formerly arrowroot fields, half or three-quarters of a mile from the sea, and 

 the spotted sandpiper was found well into the mountain forests. 



W. H. Bergtold (1926) cites an instance of the bird's catching 

 another swift-moving fish. He says that the caretakers at the Wig- 

 wam Fishing Club, Colorado, "reported the spotted sandpiper as 

 also catching trout fry." 



The following quotation adds crickets to the list of insects ; H. W. 

 Jewell (1909) writes: 



While sitting on the banks of Sandy River one night I was attracted to the 

 actions of a spotted sandpiper. There were lots of crickets on the shore of the 

 river, and the sandpiper would catch one in its bill, run up to the water, and 

 immerse the insect several times, then swallow it. This seemed .a very inter- 

 esting performance to me, and I wondered if all living insects caught are thus 

 treated before they are eaten. The cricket is quite a large insect, and as this 

 bird ate 10 or 12 he did not go to bed hungry that night. 



