BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. I 73 



migrant, but September and October are the months in which it is most com- 

 monly found. July lOth is the date on a specimen in the Peabody Academy 

 collection, and November loth records a bird taken at Newburyport, in 1904. 

 On November 9th, 1878, one was taken at Swampscott by J. A. Jeffries. I 

 have seen them only once in the spring : two on Ipswich Beach on June 5 th, 

 1904. NuttalP says: "Mr. Oakes met with this species in the vicinity of 

 Ipswich." Oakes was the famous botanist. 



On October 14th, 1904, Dr. Phillips found twenty-seven of these birds 

 and one American Dunlin on the shores of Wenham Lake, and Mr. H. W. 

 Wright in a letter to me, reports the large number of fifty seen at the protected 

 Nahant Beach, on October 26th, 1904. 



The White-rumped Sandpipers are found both on the beach and in the 

 sloughs of the marsh, sometimes in flocks by themselves, but generally with 

 other smaller Sandpipers. They are usually unsuspicious and their habits are 

 very similar to those of their smaller companions. Their note is a sharp, short 

 whistle, which I have written down tiuoit and also ssiglit and again tsst. It 

 suggests at times the call note of the Pipit. 



When on the beach, they appear only slightly larger than the Semipalmated 

 Sandpipers, and, as their wings cover their white rumps, one has to look sharply 

 to discover them in a flock of the latter birds. They are also slightly darker, 

 and a fine point is that they are dark just in front of the bend of the wings, 

 while Ereimetes is white there. When flying, however, they display their white 

 rumps, while the Semipalmated Sandpipers have black rumps. 



104 [241] Actodromas bairdii Coues. 

 Baird's Sandpiper ; " Bull-peep." 



A rare transient visitor; July 28 to October i. 



How many of these birds have been shot and eaten by gunners under the 

 name of " Bull-peep " we shall never know, but I suspect that not a few have 

 gone this way. A male was shot at Swampscott, on August 27th, 1876, by Mr. 

 W. A. Jeffries.^ Another specimen was taken at Marblehead on August iSth, 

 188 1, by C. R. Lamb.3 



' Thomas Nattall : A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada, vol. 2, p. 

 109, 1834. 



2T. M. Brewer: Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club, vol. 3, p. 140, 1878. 



^ A. P. Chadboume : Quarterly Journ. Boston Zool. Soc, vol. I, p. 37, 1882. 



