420 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 150 



and others in the American Museum of Natural History taken at 

 Cocoplum, Bocas del Toro, October 27 and 30, 1927, all collected by 

 Rex Benson. One in the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory was taken at 

 Almirante on October 10, 1964. 



EROLIA MINTJTILLA (Vieillot) : Least Sandpiper; Playerito Menudo 



Tringa minutilla Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., nouv. ed., vol. 34, Dec. 1819, 

 p. 466. (Halifax, Nova Scotia.) 



Differs from the other two species of very small sandpipers by more 

 slender bill and yellowish legs ; also is somewhat browner on the 

 back. 



Description. — Length, 130 to 145 mm. Bill definitely slender toward 

 the tip; no webs between the toes. Breeding dress, crown with 

 feather centers black, margined narrowly with buffy brown, the 

 brown more cinnamon on the back of the head ; an indistinct light 

 line over the eye ; hindneck dark gray, lined with buffy brown ; upper 

 back and scapulars black, margined and barred irregularly with buff 

 and pale cinnamon ; lower back, rump, and central tail feathers 

 black ; outer tail feathers light gray, edged narrowly with white ; 

 wing coverts dark grayish brown, with the greater coverts tipped 

 narrowly with white ; primaries and basal half of secondaries fuscous, 

 with the shafts white ; outer ends of secondaries grayish brown tipped 

 with white ; f oreneck and breast grayish white, narrowly streaked and 

 spotted with dusky ; rest of undersurface white. 



Winter plumage, above dark grayish brown, with the feathers 

 darker, blacker centrally; less heavily marked on the breast and 

 foreneck ; otherwise as in breeding dress. Darker gray above, with 

 the breast more heavily marked than in the semipalmated and western 

 sandpipers. 



Iris brown ; bill black ; legs greenish to yellowish brown. 



Measurements (from Ridgway, I.e., p. 295). — Males, wing 82-88 

 (85.5), tail 35-40 (38.2), exposed culmen 16-19 (17.2), tarsus 16.5- 

 19(17.7) mm. 



Females, wing 83-91 (86.5), tail 35-41 (37.1), exposed culmen 

 17.5-20 (18.7), tarsus 16-19 (18.1) mm. 



Migrant from the north. Common along both coasts; occasional 

 inland in the lowlands, August to April ; Isla Coiba ; Isla San Jose ; 

 Isla Bayoneta ; Isla del Rey. 



Least sandpipers begin to arrive from the north during August, 

 with the main flight in September. The northward movement is 

 under way in March and continues into April. My latest record is 



