BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



home than when tripping Hghtly over the soaking mud-flats, 

 searching for the minute forms of marine life that constitute 

 their food. Their flight is vigorous yet light, and they are fond 

 of sudden turns and evolutions on the v^ing. 



See that little flock now, as it alights on an exposed strip of 

 mud. It is a company of semi-palmated, or, perchance, of 

 Least sandpipers, for so similar are the two birds in their winter 

 dress that a close inspection of the toes is necessary to dis- 

 tinguish them. As its name implies, the former species has a 

 web at the base of the toes which is lacking in the latter bird. 

 However, the little fellows are simply enough attired, with 

 snow-white breasts and backs of gray, duskily mottled and 

 streaked. In the springtime, just as they start on their long 

 journey northward to their breeding-ground, they may some- 

 times be found in their more showy plumage of black, rufous, 

 gray and white. 



Another sandpiper is soon noticed upon the mud-flats not 

 far away, which may be easily distinguished from the preced- 

 ing bird by its considerably larger size. It is variously known 

 as the American dunlin, the red-backed, or black-bellied sand- 

 piper, although these two latter names are certainly not appli- 

 cable to the bird as we see it in winter plumage, when it is not 

 very different in color from the two smaller species. These 

 three sandpipers are the most common of the winter shore 

 birds about San Francisco Bay, and every one who visits the 

 mud-flats at this season is sure to make their acquaintance. 



A bird which in many respects seems very like a sandpiper, 

 and which nevertheless differs from it in many essential particu- 

 lars, frequents the bay shore at times and is well worth our 

 careful attention. We may happen upon it on our midwinter 



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