404 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



a hundred or more were seen during single days. On April 11, 1946, 

 soon after dark, at least 200 dropped down on the tar-gravel surface 

 of the old fighter air field. During another flight two evenings later 

 fully 100 appeared about 9:30 p.m. Nonbreeding birds frequently re- 

 main far south during the northern summer, so that it may be ex- 

 pected that a few will be recorded during that period in Panama. 



Spotted sandpipers range about water, either salt or fresh, and 

 are found on the coasts on sandy beaches, mudflats, rocky headlands, 

 and mangrove swamps. In the interior they are seen along streams, 

 and around ponds and lakes. They are not gregarious, as though sev- 

 eral may be found near one another on attractive feeding grounds, it 

 is only during the height of migration that they join in numbers, and 

 then the flocks appear diffuse. In fact, they are often pugnacious, as 

 one individual often pre-empts one bit of shore, and drives at any 

 other that may appear. Single birds seem in some instances to guard 

 a definite territory where they may be seen daily. Ordinarily, the 

 territorial disputes that I have seen have been merely pursuit and 

 chase, where one bird yielded to another. Occasionally, where two 

 seemed to have asserted definite claims, both stood and pecked hard 

 and steadily at one another for a minute or so. At the end usually 

 both turned and ran off in opposite directions. From a human view- 

 point, the apparent pretense seemed to be either that the bout was a 

 draw, or that each felt it was the victor. 



They frequent the water's edge, or open areas laid bare by reced- 

 ing water at low tide, moving quickly with the steadily tilting bodies 

 that gives the common Spanish name of chorlito or playerito coleador, 

 varied sometimes to meneacola, of similar meaning. Among English 

 speaking residents around Almirante in Bocas del Toro these birds 

 are called chicken peddy. When flushed they fly rapidly and rather 

 stiffly, with the wings little elevated above the level of the back, and 

 the body usually only a few inches above the water, so that as they 

 move they are mirrored on the surface immediately beneath. Instantly 

 on alighting the teetering motion again begins. In the mangrove 

 swamps it is common to find them at high tide standing on projecting 

 logs, or on small branches, often in the sun, and then they remain 

 quiet without movement, except to preen, until they are approached 

 when teetering may begin before they fly. At other times they may 

 rest quietly for a few minutes to receive the warmth of the early 

 morning sun. 



The stomach of one from Portobelo was filled with remains of 

 small crustaceans, with a few bits of ants and a neuropteran. Two 



