Sa memoirs of the nuttall ornithological club 



113 [246] Ereunetes pusillus (Linn.). 



Semipalmated Sandpiper; "Sand-peep.'' 



Abundant transient visitor. May 13 to June 14; summer; July 10 to 

 October 30. 



The Semipalmated Sandpiper appears to have responded to the protection 

 afforded by the Federal Law for Migratory Birds. On August 8, 1913, I counted 

 a flock of 380 of these birds on Ipswich Beach. On August 12, 1913, I found an 

 immense flock on Coffin's Beach, composed entirely of these birds with the excep- 

 tion of twenty Semipalmated Plovers and two Sanderlings. Partly by counting 

 and partly by estimation I found there were at least 1500 birds in the flock. 



In the protection of Clark's Pond at Great Neck, Ipswich, this species is 

 very abundant, especially when the water is low and large flats are exposed. The 

 birds are so scattered I have not been able to estimate the numbers at these times. 

 Several times in August I have been much interested in the actions and notes of 

 the Semipalmated Sandpipers here collected, — actions and notes that are not 

 heard when the birds are busily feeding on the beach. I have noticed that the 

 birds were nearly all young and were frequently fighting, probably in play. Two 

 would face each other, crouching almost flat on the mud or in the water and sud- 

 denly spring at each other with wings outspread. Sometimes they would slowly 

 walk toward each other with neck and body almost touching the ground and with 

 head up. This would be repeated again and again. Nearly all the birds appeared 

 to be emitting a rapidly repeated rolling note. I have sometimes described it as 

 a whinny in my notes, and have tried to reduce it to the syllables ch ch ch or 

 what-er, what-cr. This rolling note was constantly heard from all over the mud- 

 flats, and produced a considerable volume of sound. It was entirely unlike the 

 familiar whistle of the migrating flocks on the beaches. It suggests to me a modi- 

 fication of the nuptial song which I described in the original Memoir. This, 

 besides the succession of sweet notes that recall a Goldfinch or a Canary, has a 

 rolling or whinnying character. One was heard in the nuptial song in the 

 marshes by my son Charles in the darkness of the evening and of a fog at 8 p.m. 

 on May 22, 1915. 



I have noticed that this species in walking on the beach sometimes pauses 

 with the rear foot slightly lifted showing plainly the semipalmation. 



114 [247] Ereunetes mauri Cabanis. 

 Western Sandpiper. 

 Rare autimin transient visitor. July 30 to September 20. 



