THE SOLITARY SANDPIPER. = 
and slimmer build, as well as by the absence of spotting on the belly. /V eet, weet 
note a little sharper than that of A. macularia. 
Nesting.—Not known to breed in Ohio, but probably does so. Nest, on the 
ground. Eggs, 4 or 5, faint dark reddish fading to light drab or clay color, 
spotted, blotched, and scrawled with brown, and with faint purplish shell mark- 
ings on the larger end1 Av. size, 1.39 x .95 (35.3 X 24.1). 
General Range.—North America, breeding occasionally in the northern 
United States, more commonly northward, and migrating southward as far as the 
Argentine Republic and Peru. 
Range in Ohio.—Common migrant; perhaps more generally distributed than 
most of the family. Sparingly resident in summer. 
IT is neither because of excessive fear nor hauteur that birds of this 
species are not often found mingling with others of the Sandpiper kind, but 
only because they appreciate the beauty of woodsy pools and upland plashes, 
which are lost on their more gregarious fellows. A Solitary Sandpiper is 
most nearly comparable to the Spotted Sandpiper, but is larger, slimmer, 
trimmer (if possible), with a voice a little higher-pitched and thinner. These 
differences are easily made out if one is so fortunate as to see the birds together. 
At a time when the distinctive points of this species were only beginning to 
emerge in the consciousness of the student, I once came upon a Solitary Sand- 
piper feeding at the edge of a brick-yard pond, in company with a single 
Spotted and an equally solitary Pectoral Sandpiper. ‘There were no other 
shore birds of any species within a mile; but these three were not above five 
feet apart, having been led into a momentary association through some subtle 
sense of kinship and recognition of common ends. When the observer had 
conned well the lesson of comparative limicology there afforded, he put the 
birds to flight. They fled three ways with characteristic cries and never an 
afterthought, apparently, for their chance acquaintances. 
If one happens upon half a dozen of these birds feeding beside a leaf-lined 
pool in the depths of the woods, he may see not only a beautiful sight, but 
one out of the ordinary in Sandpiper experiences. The birds dart about 
rapidly, capturing not only slugs, worms, and small crustaceans, but insects as 
well. Indeed, the wings at times are carried about half-raised, as tho the 
bird were on the very point of flight; and quick sallies are made at passing 
moths or beetles. If a decaying log lies half submerged, it is sure to be 
inspected from every point of vantage; and the bird is not averse to alighting, 
on occasion, upon the limb of a convenient tree. Again, the bird plashes about 
freely upon the floating vegetation, or wades breast deep, taking care, however, 
that its dainty white bodice shall not be soiled. At other times, perhaps, 
it moves with the sedateness of a Heron, putting each foot down carefully, so 
as not to roil the water. 
1 See article by C. K. Clarke, M. D., in The Auk for October, 1808. 
