l6o MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



63. Pelidna alpina sakhalina (Vieill.). 

 Red-backed Sandpiper. Grass Bird. 



Rare transient visitor in autumn. 



On October 12, 1867, I found five Red-backed Sandpipers feeding together 

 in the Longfellow Marshes on the Brighton side of Charles River, and killed two 

 of them. This is the only definite record that my notes supply of the occurrence 

 of the species in the Cambridge Region. If I am not greatly mistaken in my 

 recollection, however, a few birds used to be met with, nearly every season, by 

 the gunners who regularly visited the Charles River Marshes in autumn twenty- 

 five or thirty years ago. 



64. Ereunetes pusillus (Linn.). 

 Semipalmated Sandpiper. Peep. 



Transient visitor, formerly abundant in late summer and early autumn. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



August 4, 1875, about one hundred seen, two ' taken, Fresh Pond, W. Brewster. 



August 10 — September 15. 

 October 5, 1874, one taken. Fresh Pond Marshes, W. Brewster. 



The autumnal migration of the Semipalmated Sandpiper begins and ends a 

 week or two later than that of the Least Sandpiper. During the greater part 

 of August, however, the two species may be found together and in about equal 

 numbers. The Semipalmated used to occur abundantly along Charles River 

 where it frequented the salt marshes, tidal creeks and mud flats, all the way 

 from West Boston Bridge to the Watertown Arsenal. I have also seen it 

 repeatedly in the marshes lying between the Glacialis and Little River, and Mr. 

 John H. Hardy, Jr., writes me that he has killed it at Great Meadow. In the 

 summer of 1875 the water in Fresh Pond was drawn down to an exceptionally 



' Nos. 232 and 233, collection of William Brewster. 



