THE LEAST AND SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS 



By HERBERT K. JOB 



^^t il^attonal Sl00ocieition ot jaudubon ^ocittitQ 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 52 



These two dainty little species, the smallest of their tribe, may well be 

 considered our representative shore-birds. The flocking of restless bands of 

 nimble sprites along the sea-coast and the larger inland bodies of water is 

 one of the unique and specially attractive sights of Nature. Such a species 

 as the Spotted Sandpiper, though accessible to more people by reason of 

 its summer stay, does not gather in large and compact flocks. It is rather 

 through the two species we are considering that the majority of people who 

 see shore-birds at all become familiar with the masterly flight-tactics of the 

 shore-bird squadrons, and with the pretty company that races along and 

 across the beach, chased by the weaves. The larger shore-birds, alasl have 

 been pretty well shot off, and in most sections of the country are found, if 

 at all, in scattering numbers, only in favorable spots, and by the initiated. 

 So these tiny species, least attractive to gunners, remain the commonest of 

 their family. 



They are too small for food purposes, and no one deserving of the name 

 of sportsman will, in these days, fusillade their diminished ranks. They are 

 in nothing like their former abundance. Instead of flocks of hundreds which 

 I was formerly familiar with, two dozen now is a large flock in many localities, 

 and rare enough at that. For want, though, of other bay-bird game, the pot- 

 hunter still pursues these surviving flocks. Mr. Wilbur F. Smith, on a walk 

 along the shores and marshes in a section near Bridgeport, Conn., not long 

 ago, found many of these beautiful little birds dead or wounded along the 

 shores. Some youths, for want of bigger game, were shooting up 'Peeps,' 

 to see how many they could kill, not even bothering to pick them up. It is 

 high time to put these small shore-birds in the protected class, and be able 

 to stop this sort of vandalism. 



There is a peculiar charm connected with the migrations of 

 Range these birds. They are so tiny and delicate, yet withal so strong 



and sure in their flight, so able to dash with amazing swiftness 

 past coasts and over trackless ocean, and to reach the extremes of continents. 

 They come in April or May, according to latitude, with the aroma of the 

 tropics, and return in late July to September with the tang of the arctic wild. 

 In the southward flight, the semipalmated species gets as far as Patagonia, 

 while the other is known to reach Chile. Not all go that far, however, for 

 some winter as far north as the Carolinas, and I have found them common on 

 the coast of Louisiana, in January. For breeding, they wing their wa\' mostly 



