Vol 'i5i8 XV ] Dixon, The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. 401 



my hiding place, as the male Sandpiper refused to return to the 

 young until I moved. He seemed much concerned upon this last 

 visit, probably realizing that it was high time the young should be 

 hovered and warmed. 



I could not understand why all the young had not risen at once 

 in answer to the parent's call but I noticed that he had in each 

 case gone up to within less than two feet of the one in hiding, 

 and then with lowered head facing the chick, gave the call note. 

 In each case it was the youngster thus directly addressed that 

 responded to the signal and arose. The note of the young was a 

 low rusty squeak, scarcely audible to human ears. It was very 

 similar to the note of the young Semipalmated Sandpiper (see 

 Dixon, 1917, p. 190). 



As far as my observations went, there was no attempt on the 

 part of the parent to feed the young, and it is my belief that from 

 the time they are hatched the young Spoon-bills hunt their own 

 food. The exercise thus gained was found in the case of young 

 Semipalmated Sandpipers to be essential to the health of the 

 chicks. In addition to keeping warm by running about the young 

 Spoon-bills are hovered and warmed at regular intervals by the 

 parent. The brood mentioned above had survived a fairly severe 

 snowstorm on the preceding day. 



An effort was made to carry the three downy Spoon-bills back 

 to the ship alive, and as we had "hopped, skipped and jumped" 

 ashore over a mile of drifting ice cakes, the packing was done with 

 care. A thick nest of cotton was made in the collecting basket, 

 but within an hour the young sandpipers began to go into con- 

 vulsions and although they were placed inside of the author's 

 "parka" next to his body, they all soon died. Their death seemed 

 to be due to lack of exercise, as they were kept warm, and cer- 

 tainly could not have starved to death in an hour. Manniche 

 (1910, p. 146) reports a similar experience with two downy young 

 of the Sanderling, on the breeding grounds of this species in north- 

 east Greenland. 



As has been pointed out by Thayer (1911, p. 154), the bill of the 

 newly hatched young of this Sandpiper shows the characteristic 

 "spoon" well developed. The narrow part of the bill of a downy 

 young Spoon-bill is short compared with that of the adult, while 



