General Notes 127 



General Notes 



NOTES FROM LAKE COUNTY 



Western Sandpiper. — Sunday, July 20, 1919, I flushed five 

 small "peeps" that were feeding along the beach of Lake Erie. 

 Peep-like, they flew a hundred yards, turned, came back and 

 alighted practically in the same place, which was not over a rod 

 from where I stood. As they lit in I put my glass on them and 

 said to myself, " Four Semipalmated Sandpipers and a Red-back." 

 But immediately the absurdity of its being a Red-back was evi- 

 dent, for they were not due for nearly three months, the bird was 

 too small, and though the bill was long and bent at the tip, it 

 was not near the length of a Red-back. To make my meaning clear, 

 and to let the reader understand why I momentarily thought it a 

 Red-back, will say the bill of this little peep bore the same ap- 

 proximate ratio to the size of the bird as does the bill of the Red- 

 back to the size of that bird. 



I watched them a long time as they fed along the water's 

 edge, keeping so near that the semipalmation of the feet could be 

 readily seen as they lifted them. (I have often noticed the Semi- 

 palmated lifts its feet differently than does the Least Sandpiper, — 

 as though they were heavier, and when very near one could im- 

 agine they had mud between their toes.) I estimated, while 

 watching them, the length of the bills of the four Semipalmates to 

 be not over .75 of an inch, while that of the Western was fully 

 1.25 and distinctly bent at the tip. I knew the Western would 

 have a longer bill but was not prepared for quite such a difference 

 nor for such a decided bend. Upon reaching home I looked up 

 measurements and found the extremes to be .66 for the minimum 

 of the Semipalmated and 1.20 for the maximum female Western. 

 Therefore my field estimation was not far out of the way, and the 

 bird must have been a female with extreme length of bill. Half 

 an inch added to the bill of a bird as small as a Peep makes a 

 very evident change in its appearance. In the lately published 

 " Game Birds of California " there is a cut of the heads of Least 

 and Western Sandpipers which conforms very closely to my birds, 

 although I would say this particular specimen had a still more 

 evident bend at the tip. 



Parasitic Jaeger. — This bird Is reported now and then along 

 the lakes, but I made a record of it September 20, 1914, that may 

 be worth while to publish on account of its early appearance. 

 While walking the beach I noticed a dead bird on the- sand that 

 at a casual glance I took to be a Crow's remains and would have 



