EEDBACEED SANDPIPEE 381 



Snipe in being quite erratic. The broken-wing ruse is on occasion 

 attempted, when the nesting Sandpiper is endeavoring to lead an 

 intruder away from the nest ; but none of the intimidating tactics 

 employed by larger waders are used by this species. 



' ' The young are certainly- precocious, leaving the' nest at least by 

 the first day after birth, and, thereafter, being able to find their food 

 and take care of themselves. ..." "To protect, to Avarn, to guide 

 in the search for food, these seem to be the chief parental functions 

 at this stage" (Moore, 1912, pp. 212, 213). 



Tlie food of the Least Sandpiper consists of insects and minute 

 marine animals found along the shore and on the mud flats. Among 

 the insects consumed are mosquitoes and grasshoppers (McAtee, 

 1911a), and, at Mono Lake, W. K. Fisher (1902a, p. 9) found these 

 birds feeding in company with other waders upon the flies which 

 swarm in early autumn along the shores of that lake. 



The Least Sandpiper never has been considered a legitimate 

 object of pursuit by the better class of sportsmen, and never should 

 be. Its small size and unsuspecting habits plead for its exclusion 

 from the category of game birds. Along the eastern coast of the 

 United States, Forbush (1912, pp. 278-280) says that in former years 

 it was not hunted to any extent, but that with the decrease of larger 

 game the Peeps have come to be a serious object of sport ; many are 

 slaughtered annually, and as a result a marked decrease in their 

 numbers has of late been noticed. Happily other game species in 

 California are yet so numerous that the "Peeps" have not so far 

 suffered materially from the onslaughts of the hunter. Let us in 

 California conserve the larger species to such a degree that the day 

 will never come when "peep-pies" will be countenanced as legitimate 

 food on our tables. 



Red-backed Sandpiper 

 Pelidna alpina sakhalina (Vieillot) 



Other- NAMES — Dunlin; American Dunlin; Black-bellied Sandpiper; Pelidna 

 americana; Pelidna alpina americana; Tringa alpina; Tringa alpina pacifica ; 

 Tringa pacifica; Tringa alpina var. americana. 



Description — Adults, both sexes, in late spring and summer: Top of head 

 streaked with black and rusty; broad stripe from base of upper mandible to 

 eye, and recurring behind eye, white, flecked with dusky; spot at side of bill 

 dull buffy; side of head otherwise whitish, narrowly streaked with blackish 

 brown; chin white; bill "black"; iris "dark brown" (Audubon, 1842, V, p. 

 268); hind neck whitish or buffy streaked with dusky; feathers of back and 

 scapulars black centrally, with broad margins of deep tawny red, and narrowly 

 tipped with ashy; rump dull brown; central upper tail coverts black, irregularly 

 marked with tawny red; outermost upper tail coverts white; innermost tail 



