433 GAME BIEDS OF CALIFOBNIA 



San Andreas, Calaveras County, at 1,000 feet, and Bolander (1907, 

 p. 26) took sets of eggs at Lime Kiln, a little east of Speneeville, 

 Nevada County. From these foothill localities the species ranges up 

 in the Sierras almost to timber line, downy young having been taken 

 at Cottonwood Lakes, Inyo County, August 25, 1911 (specimens in 

 Mus. Vert. Zool.). Most of the recorded nestings have been from the 

 vicinity of Lake Tahoe and northward in the elevated lake region 

 northeast of the Sierran divide. The nesting season extends from 

 May (Willett, loc. cit.) through July, as Belding (MS) found fresh 

 eggs at Summit, Placer County, Julj^ 20, 1889 ; and the young birds 

 (in Mus. Vert. Zool.) taken at Cottonwood Lakes, Inyo County, on 

 August 25, 1911, were but half grown. June, chiefly the latter half 

 of the month, marks the height of the nesting season, as the bulk 

 of the records fall during that period. 



Nests of the Spotted Sandpiper occupy a variety of situations. 

 Rocky or gravelly shores of some mountain or foothill stream, sandy 

 river bars inland, fresh water marshes, or the drier fields adjacent, 

 may be chosen. Often the eggs are placed in the shelter of a small 

 bunch of grass, or a tree ; again they may lie fully exposed among 

 pebbles on the shore. When the latter type of situation is chosen 

 there may be no lining whatever to the nest, but if the nest is in a 

 field or marsh considerable lining material in the form of grasses and 

 weed stems is the rule. LTsually a slight surface depression is selected 

 for the site. 



The eggs are, so far as known, always four in a complete set, and 

 measure 1.24 to 1.36 inches in length by 0. 87 to 0.97 along the shorter 

 axis, the average being 1.28 by 0.93. The ground-color varies from 

 a pale cream to a rather deep buff, with superficial spots of reddish 

 or blackish brown and deeper ones of pale gray. The superficial spots 

 are usually more numerous and larger about the larger end of the 

 egg, and may sometimes be fused into large blotches. Deeper pur- 

 plish gray markings are also noticeable. From the eggs of other shore 

 birds of approximately the same size, and which nest in California, 

 those of the Spotted Sandpiper may be distinguished as follows: 

 from eggs of the Killdeer by their distinctly smaller size, from those 

 of the Wilson Phalarope by less profuse markings and the brownish 

 rather than blackish cast of the superficial spots. Eggs of the Snowy 

 Plover are decidedly smaller in size, much paler in color effect, and 

 less pointedly pear-shaped, than those of the Spotted Sandpiper. 



The two sexes participate in the duty of incubation. When flushed 

 from the nest, the bird flutters away as if wounded, uttering feeble 

 peeping notes (L. Kellogg, MS). Instances are related of old birds 

 carrying downy young to places of safety by grasping them between 

 their thighs, or in their bills (Bartsch, 1901, pp. 143ff.). 



