SPOTTED SANDPIPER 87 



Alexander Wetmore (1916), who examined the contents of nine 

 stomachs, says: "Though mole crickets {Scaptenscus didactylos) 

 were found in but two stomachs, they form 10.78 per cent of the 

 total food." Summarizing his findings, he concludes, "From the 

 foregoing the spotted sandpiper is a beneficial species and should 

 not be molested." 



Behavior. — Nothing is more characteristic of the spotted sandpiper 

 than its flight. When it first starts from the shore the wings seem 

 to vibrate like a taut wire; then, as the bird gains headway, they 

 set and, depressed and quivering, they carry the bird slowly onward, 

 often swaying from side to side, close to the surface of the water. 

 As a rule, when startled, the sandpiper takes a semicircular course 

 and alights a short distance farther up the beach, and if followed 

 either takes another flight onward or doubles back as a kingfisher 

 would do under similar circumstances. This scaling flight, some- 

 what after the manner of a meadow lark, is seen most commonly 

 during the summer, but on infrequent occasions the sandpiper lets go 

 his wings and carries them back with a long, free sweep and speeds 

 through the air with the rapidity of a swallow. The transition from 

 one kind of flight to the other is remarkable to see ; with outstretched 

 neck it drives along with regular wing beats, a long, slender, un- 

 familiar-looking wader. 



J. T. Nichols mentions in his notes this peculiar flight; he says: 



One might be familiar with the bird for years and believe it [the scaling 

 flight] invariable. Careful attention in late summer and fall, however, will 

 demonstrate that it is not. When, as rarely happens, the spotted sandpiper 

 rises to some height to make a considerable aerial passage (especially over 

 a stretch of marsh) the flight becomes regular like that of a minature yellow- 

 legs, or swift and darting as it sometimes is with a white-rumped sandpiper 

 for instance. It also, at times, flies low over the tops of the marsh grass In 

 this last named manner. To identify such birds in the air is very difficult, 

 and they v.ill pass for some one of the other sandpipers of rather small size 

 if one does not chance to appreciate the slenderer neck and somewhat different 

 shape, or the more uniform color of the upper parts. 



The ability to swim and dive which is so noticeable in the young of 

 the spotted sandpiper is even more remarkably evident in the be- 

 havior of the adult bird. Of the many instances recorded in the 

 literature, the following will illustrate this well developed pro- 

 clivity. 



E. H. Forbush (1912) speaks thus of the action of a wounded 

 bird: 



In September, 1876, I saw a wounded bird of this species when pursued, 

 dive into deep water from the shore of the Charles River and fly off under 

 water, using its wings somewhat as a bird would use them in the air. All its 

 plumage was covered with bubbles of air, which caught the light until the 

 bird appeared as if studded with sparkling gems as it sped away into the 

 depths of the dark river. 

 2316—29 7 



