LEAST SANDPIPER 



379 



Fig. fi9. Tarsus 

 and top of foot of 

 Least Sandpiper. 

 Natural size. 



Note absence of 

 any webbing between 

 bases of front toes 

 (compare witli fig. 

 70). 



When foraging in companies Least Sandpipers utter faint peeps 

 in conversational undertone ; in flight the note is more emphatic and- 

 varied: ivheet, ivheet, or wheel, wheet, wheet-whrr-terr-wheet, of plain- 

 tive quality. Lone individuals are more given to calling than members 

 in a flock. 



L( ast Sandpipers often occur as single indi- 

 viduals, but more generall}^ in flocks of varying 

 sizes sometimes numbering several hundred indi- 

 viduals. They frequent with apparent impar- 

 tiality the sea-beach, tide flat, marshland and 

 river bar. Throughout most of the day, and 

 probably well into the night, they are active, at- 

 tentively gleaning food from the sand or mud 

 at the water's edge. When not persistently 

 hunted they are quite tame and will allow close 

 approach. If the observer takes his position on 

 the shore and remains quiet for a time, the birds 

 will usually feed along almost at his feet. When 

 at work probing for food the bill is rapidly 

 thrust in and out of the sand or mud at tlie rate 

 of three or four dabs per second for as many 

 seconds ; then it is raised entireh" free of the 

 surface, and the bird straightens up and moves 

 a fi w steps to a new location, to continue its 

 search in similar fashion. As the bill goes down 

 the tail goes up, so that the bird appears to 

 teeter up and down, the legs acting as fulcra. 

 When on the ground the birds move with a rapid, 

 direct run, never trotting as do some of the 

 plovers. Occasionally an individual will be seen 

 to raise its wings vertically above the body and 

 hold tliem there for a few seconds before fold- 

 ing them into place again. Once, a bird was 

 seen to do this as it made a deep probe in the 

 mud and at the same time one leg was raised 

 from the ground and stretched backwards ; in 

 this case it seemed as though the wings were 

 raised for the purpose of balancing the body. 

 Wlien frightened the birds take to flight suddenly, and look to be 

 traveling at their topmost speed almost immediately. Individuals 

 show more erratic movement in flight than do flocks. The latter pur- 

 sue a zigzag course, so that one sees first the brown backs and then a 

 flash of white from the under surfaces, and this often, depending upon 

 the background against which they are seen, causes the birds to 



Fig. 70. Tarsus 

 and top of foot of 

 Western Sandpiper. 

 Natural size. 



Note partial webs 

 between bases of 

 front toes (compare 

 with fig. 69). 



