SUPPLEMENT TO BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY 



83 



The courtship flight-song of this bird I have observed on the breeding-grounds 

 in the North. The bird rises like a mechanical toy and flies in irregular circles 

 from twenty to fifty yards above the bog with wings set down and quivering 

 rapidly. In the flight it emits a short fine trill suggestive of a cricket, rapidly 

 repeated. On one occasion the bird remained in the air five minutes and con- 

 tinued to trill after it had reached the ground. Immediately it was up again, trill- 

 ing, and, as I left the bog it followed after me, still trilling. On the ground the 

 colors matched so well those of the bog that the bird at once became invisible if not 

 carefully noted down. 



In the original Memoir I referred to the resemblance of the Least to the 

 Pectoral Sandpiper and have since come across the following by Coues :^ " This 

 diminutive species in form, color and general habits, is very closely allied to the 

 preceding [Pectoral Sandpiper] of which it is in fact a perfect miniature." 



In the original Memoir I discussed at some length the field-marks of this 

 species, and have to add here only the facts that the bill is slightly decurved and 

 that the white line on the wings is more clearly defined than in the Semipalmated 

 species. 



Ill [243a] Pelidna alpina sakhalina (Vieill.). 



Red-backed Sandpiper; Dunlin; "Brant-bird." 



Rare spring and common autumn transient visitor. May 20 to June 18; 

 September i to November 8 (December 13). 



The December 13 record is of one seen at Ipswich in 1913 Iiy Dr. G. M. Allen. 

 In a large flock of Sanderlings at Ipswich on May 31, 1915, I saw a single full- 

 plumaged Dunlin, and another single bird on May 28, 1916. 



112 [244] Erolia ferruginea (Briinn.). 

 Curlew Sandpiper. 

 Accidental visitor from Europe. 

 There are no additions to the three previous records. 



1 Coues, Elliott. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., p. 230, 1861. 



