86 



THE OSPEEY. 



A pair of Stilt Sandpipers are to be seen any 

 day this montli (Jmie) feeding' unconcernedly 

 Avithin sifi'ht of this town on a wet, closely 

 cropped meadow enclosed in a pasture iiud 

 within one hundred feet of the roadside. If 

 they ever seemed to have any business other 

 than feeding" one mig"ht think they are nesting 

 here far away from their Arctic summer home. 



If the Least Sandpiper does not nest about 

 Devils Lake then all sig^ns fail, yet the positive 

 proof is still wanting". Many times before this 

 year I have observed the little fellows in pairs 

 or wisps all throug"h the summer happily feeding 

 along" the sandy, gravelly shores. This year I 

 have spent more time than usual about the lake, 

 and while I find no stronger symptoms of nest- 

 ing yet my i-espect for this blithe species is les- 

 soned if in fact they are simply idlers here in 

 such numbers all throug"li the brig"ht summer, so 

 busy a season for other varieties. As stated in 

 "Birds of the Northwest" Dr. Coues noted the 

 Least Sandpiper all through the breeding season 

 in Northern Dakota and suspected they mig"ht 

 in nesting. 



The Marbled Godwit is becoming rare here- 

 abouts as a summer resident. Since the North- 

 ern migration ended I have this year seen but a 

 single pair. The nest has been taken here at 

 rare intervals. Mr. Bryant states that two 

 years ago he chanced upon a nest besides an old 

 roadwaj' on the wild prairie and some little dis- 

 tance from water. The same year a field col- 

 lector here bought a pail full of eggs from a 

 settler, among which were three eggs that might 

 fairly be attributed to this species, said to have 

 been taken from a nest a few yards from a broad 

 coulee in unsettled country-. May 22, 1892, 

 while driving across a ridge between two large 

 marshes in new territory, I discovered a nest 

 of this species containing" full set of four eggs. 

 The distress of the sitting bird was so great 

 that my wife, to whom the spectacle was novel, 

 persuaded me to leave the nest untouchedl 



The Western Willet mig-ht be called fairly 

 common here through the summer, thougii 

 w'here they hide their nests is becoming a 

 serious puzzle to me. Now and then about 

 some alkaline slough or lake a pair makes a 

 vigorous onslaught on me saying in eft'ect 

 that I am trespassing too near the nest, but I 

 never succeeded in locating it. I suspect the 

 bird — unlike most other tattlers — is not a close 

 sitter. Last summer a boy herding the town 

 cows nearby noted that one of the animals far 

 ahead flushed a Willet from the moderately long 

 grass. The nest, to which he afterwards piloted 

 me, was on high and dry prairie fully 100 yards 

 from the edge of a wet meadowy and built after 

 the manner of the Bartramian Sandpiper, which, 

 if the books are correct, is an unusual instance 

 both as to situation and construction. Almost 

 any still evening before dark one or two of 

 these birds may be seen and their stirring />/// 

 will willet heard near an alkaline pond and a 

 slender coulee winding; through the very out- 

 skirts of the village, and there is little doubt 

 that their nest is concealed almost in our 

 midst. 



The Bartramian Sandpiper is an abundant 

 breeder on the prairies here although the nest 



is rarely discovered, except by flushing the bird 

 which is a remarkal)ly close sitter. I think I 

 never detected the birds in the act of building. 

 15eing rarely shot at they are so tame and con- 

 fiding that they barely turn aside to give room 

 to a passer by. One wonders that a bird of such 

 small, slender body is able to extrude an &^^ of 

 such size as those usually found, thovigh last 

 year I noted one very beautiful set (n<jw in the 

 collection of G. Frean Morcom) scarcely larger 

 than large eg"g"s of Wilson's Phalarope though 

 thicker and much more blunt. 



Until this year I had regarded the Spotted 

 Sandpiper as a rather rare breeder here, but I 

 now discover that in this region it is more local 

 that rare. On the two islands spoken of above 

 I found this species in great profusion and as 

 busy as bees in their housekeeping. From June 

 5 to 15 some half dozen nests were observed with 

 completed sets built in the midst of slight tus- 

 socks of thin grass very similar to those of the 

 Phalaropes. 



The Kildeer appears as common here as else- 

 where in the United States. Ranging in time 

 from May 10th to June 20th, I have found the 

 nest on gravelly knolls, on sandy ridges, in the 

 edge of plowed fields, and on the gravel beach of 

 the big lake. A boy who brings us green veg- 

 etables says that last season two pairs nested 

 in their potato patch close to the house. 



The Semipalmated Pl<jver probably breeds 

 here rarely. I had been so informed but hardly 

 credited the claim till this year when I observed 

 the birds in pairs all through June at three 

 points above the lake, and thoug"h I did not dis- 

 cover the nest yet the conduct of the birds was 

 suggestive of domestic operations. A common 

 habit of this species is that of taking up a posi- 

 tion on a g-ood sized boulder in the edge of the 

 water where it remains perfectly motionless for 

 a long" time as though in deep contemplation; 

 bvit ordinarily it is busily engaged along the 

 muddy shores in pursuit <3f its food, oftentimes 

 suft'ering approach within a dozen yards before 

 uttering its quick alarm cry as it takes wing. 



This year I was fortunate in extending my 

 acquaintance with the Belted Piping Plover. 

 I do not understand the apparent disposition of 

 the principal writers to pass this species over so 

 lightU' or as if it has doubtful title to a place in 

 the list. It hasn't even a number in the list all 

 to itself — and yet besides a habitat entirely dif- 

 ferent from that of the Piping Plover of the 

 Atlantic coast the complete black band entirely 

 encircling" the lower neck is a coiislaiit feature, 

 and not accidental in scattered individuals as 

 sugg"ested in even the latest edition of Coues' 

 key. 



M3- experience of last year as related in 

 OSPKEY for February gave me a clue to the nest- 

 ing- habits of the species and I sought them in 

 similar places this year. At only three differ- 

 ent localities were thev to be found along some 

 twenty miles of lake shore; on the two islands 

 spoken of above and on a long, gravelly point 

 running far out into the lake, and I shall be 

 surprised if they are found breeding elsewhere 

 in the state than about the shores and islands 

 of Devils Lake, for during fifteen years here I 

 have never even seen it elsewhere and imagine 



