THE SANDERLING. 665 
No. 267. 
SANDERLING. 
A. O. U. No. 248. Calidris leucophza (Pallas). 
Description.—A dult in summer: Crown and upperparts in general blackish 
with heavy edging of ashy white, and with much striping, sub-marginal marking, 
or indenting and’ barring, of pale rufous; sides of head, throat, and neck all 
around, and sides of breast ashy white, strongly tinted with pale rufous, and finely 
spotted with dusky ; remaining underparts pure white,—the white well up on sides 
of rump, and including outer feathers of upper tail-coverts; wings, marginally, 
and including exposed portions of quills, fuscous; the greater coverts tipped with 
white, and the wing-quills changing to white on their inner webs and under sur- 
faces; the inner primaries white basally on outer webs; tail dusky above, ashy 
gray on lateral feathers; bill and feet black. Adult in winter: Wings dusky, 
varied, on middle coverts, etc., with white; central upper tail-coverts and tail- 
feathers dusky ; remaining upperparts ashy gray (nearly pearl gray) ; the feathers. 
especially on crown, with dusky shaft-lines; entire underparts pure white. Jmma- 
ture in fall: Somewhat like adult in summer, but without rufous anywhere ; 
back, therefore, showing more black, varied chiefly by white in scant edgings and 
tips, or 1n liberal indentations on scapulars and tertials; feathers of rump nearly 
square-ended, marked subterminally with light ashy gray, but tipped with a sharp, 
narrow band of blackish; underparts aie ,—or sometimes spotted on breast. 
Length 7.00-8.75 (177.8-222.3); wing 4.82 (122.4); tail 2.11 (53.6); bill 1.06 
(26.9) ; tarsus 1.02 (25.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Chewink size; fine, mottled rufous-ash and black of 
spring birds; excess of white in fall specimens; black bill, strongly contrasting 
with adjacent plumage. Absence of hind toe, of course, distinctive. : 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. Nest: on the ground. Eggs: 
or 4, light olive, or greenish brown, finely speckled and spotted with dark brow n, 
chiefly Pineas larger Fae AAV SIZEs el-AMeNseO lan(3heO xe 2aeT 
General Range.—N early cosmopolitan, breeding in the Arctic and subarctic 
regions ; migrating in America south to Chili and Patagonia. 
Range in Washington.—Rare migrant west of the Cascades only (Blaine, 
Sept. I, 1904). 
Authorities—Calidris arenaria (Linn.), Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX., 
1858, p. 724. 
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B. 
THERE is a tide in the affairs of the Sanderling which, taken at the ebb. 
provides a momentary fortune of stranded crustaceans and marine insects. 
The bird follows the retiring billows with uplifted wing, quick to seize upon 
the wave’s disclosures, and ready at a sign to avoid the return of the fickle 
water. It is thus that we find him in May, and again late in August or Sep- 
tember, along the Pacific shore and about the flats and inlets of Puget Sound 
