BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE" REGION. 



159 



Glacialis ; here, up to about 1875, I often met with it during the month of Octo- 

 ber, feeding singly or in small flocks, in wet or very moist places where the grass 

 had been recently cut. Although I have no definite knowledge that it has fre- 

 quented any of these localities within the past ten or fifteen years, the chances 

 are that it has not, as yet, wholly deserted them. It is also probable that a 

 few birds may still be found, at the right season, in Great Meadow, where the 

 recent draining of the reservoir has left e.xtensive muddy flats which, at present, 

 attract numbers of Wilson's Snipe besides several species of small Sandpipers. 



62. Actodromas minutilla (Vieill.). 

 Least Sandpiper. Peep. 



Transient visitor in spring and autumn, formerly abundant, still verj- common. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



May 13, 1 87 1, thirty or more seen, Charles River, W. Brewster. 



May 15 — 28. 

 June I, 1875, one seen, several heard, Fresh Pond Swamps, W. Brewster. 



July 13, 1883, about twenty seen, Charles River Marshes, C. R. Lamb. 



July 20 — September i. 

 September 21, 1870, large flock seen, Charles River, W. Brewster. 



I have occasionally seen Least Sandpipers singly or in small flocks about 

 the shores of Fresh Pond and not infrequently in the marshes just to the north- 

 ward of the Glacialis, while Mr. John H. Hardy, Jr., writes me that he has 

 killed them in Great Meadow. Their favorite haunts in the Cambridge Region, 

 however, are — or rather were — the salt marshes and tidal creeks of Charles 

 River between Watertown and West Boston Bridge. Here they were wont to 

 occur most abundantly at Whittemore Point, Cambridgeport ; in the Brighton 

 or Longfellow Marshes opposite Old Cambridge ; and about a small muddy 

 island near the Watertown Arsenal where I have known as many as two or 

 three hundred birds to be assembled at one time. Their numbers have dimin- 

 ished very materially within the past twenty years, but they are, I believe, still 

 common enough at the proper seasons wherever they continue to find suitable 

 feeding grounds. 



