Vo, i9l8 XV ] Dixon, The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. 395 



two species until June 20, after we had been among them for some 

 days. However, despite our initial failure to secure the birds, it is 

 my belief that the Spoon-bill begins to arrive on its breeding grounds 

 by the end of the first week in June. A pair of sandpipers was 

 encountered near the east shore of Emma Harbor, in Providence 

 Bay, on June 6, 1913, which evidently belonged to this species. 

 The male was at this time energetically engaged in his characteristic 

 nuptial song flight while the female fed quietly among the tussocks 

 near the edge of a pond on the tundra. 



Although the spatulate tip of this bird's bill is very noticeable 

 when viewed from directly above or below, it is not a character 

 which can be advantageously used to identify the species in the 

 field, for the simple reason that in nearly all close views of the 

 living bird only lateral or frontal aspects of the bill are obtained. 

 Viewed from the side, as shown in Thayer's illustration (Joe. cit., 

 Plate II, Fig. 5), the bill is not sufficiently peculiar in outline to be 

 distinguished from those of other small sandpipers at any great 

 distance. Even when a bird was feeding, and the bill was ob- 

 served under the most favorable conditions, the peculiar shape was 

 not nearly as conspicuous as one would expect. In the author's 

 experience, the most reliable method of identifying the bird in the 

 field was by noting the glint of light that was reflected from the 

 broad tip of the upper mandible when the sunlight struck the bill 

 at a certain angle. Even in flight, the bird could often be identified 

 by this faint beam of reflected light. Our first specimen was 

 collected on June 20, suspicion having been directed to this particu- 

 lar bird by seeing the sunlight reflected from the tip of the bill, as 

 above described. 



We found that the Sandpiper had a decided preference for the 

 grassy margins of fresh-water ponds, while single birds were 

 frequently found feeding along the algse-bordered rims of tundra 

 pools. Sandy lagoons where rivers entered the bay were favored 

 by them as well. 



The song and nuptial flight of the male Spoon-bill, attractive as 

 they were to the collector, in sight of such rare birds at last, were as 

 elusive as a will-o'-the-wisp. In fact we were never able to locate 

 a female Spoon-bill on the nest and I have always believed that 

 our lack of success in this regard was due to the warning given 



