SPOTTED SANDPIPER 91 



note, kemoee, kerricee^ kerrwee^ now loud, now very low and dis- 

 tant, has been heard from an adult with the evident purpose of 

 assembling her young; and Saunders speaks of a parent bird which 

 called to its young, tootawee^ tootawee^ tootawee, tootawee over and 

 over. The call is like the 'peet a toeet in form, but lower pitched and 

 softer." 



A common note, heard during the summer on the breeding ground 

 when the birds are undisturbed, resembles closely the whistle of the 

 little frog, Hyla 'plcker'mgli. This is a far-reaching whistled note, 

 not given in a series like the weet^ weet call. It is a single note, 

 apparently, repeated over and over again, not regularly, but always 

 with an interval between each repetition. 



It is cjear that Nichols has this note in mind when he says, " Pip ! 

 pip! pip! is a note heard between adult birds in the breeding season 

 which seems to be of polite address, or possibly impolite, as it is 

 almost identical in form with a note of protest by old birds when 

 nest or young are threatened." 



Continuing, he describes two other notes, " the pit-wit-wit fre- 

 quently heard from adults as a note of departure may best be con- 

 sidered a variation of this one [the pip wip of the young] as also the 

 peet weet weet or weet weet most frequent a little later in the season 

 as little companies of birds start out over the water for longer or 

 shorter distances. 



"An old bird, surprised near her brood and fluttering off playing 

 wounded called cheerp cheerp a sort of scream as of pain and fear." 



Field marks. — The spotted sandpiper is one of the prettiest, most 

 delicate, and trim of the shore birds; in place of the browns and 

 greys of the streaked upper parts of most waders there is a plain 

 greenish sheen on the back, and in autumn across the breast a soft 

 tint like a fawn. Through the glass the wings show a fine mottling, 

 suggesting a wren. The line of white at the posterior margin of the 

 open wing is a good diagnostic mark, and its habit of teetering makes 

 identification certain. The only bird which resembles the spotted 

 sandpiper at all closely is its larger relative the solitary sandpiper, 

 but the characteristic motion of this bird is a ploverlike hitching 

 movement or bob, as if hiccoughing, very different from the spotted 

 sandpiper's rapid swaying up and down of the hinder part of the 

 body. 



Enemies. — The chief enemies of the spotted sandpiper are the 

 swift-moving hawks, whose pursuit it sometimes successfully eludes 

 by diving in the manner described above. J. E. H. Kelso (1926) 

 records an instance of this habit. He says : 



Skirting the la£e shore in my sneak boat a spotted sandpiper was repeatedly 

 disturbed, flew along in front of the boat to settle again and again on the shore. 



