210 Moore, Least Sandpiper in the Magdalen Islands. L April 



THE LEAST SANDPIPER DURING THE NESTING 

 SEASON IN THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 



BY ROBERT THOMAS MOORE. 



Plates XIII, XIV. 



The habits described in this paper were noted in the Magdalen 

 Islands, Gulf of St. Lawrence, during the period, June 17 to July 2, 

 1911. Most of these days were spent in the vicinity of Grosse Isle, 

 the fishing village at the northeast end of the "Lagoon." This 

 peculiar body of water, twenty-five miles long by two or three 

 wide, is bulwarked against the sea on both sides by a narrow stretch 

 of dunes, wind-tossed mile after mile to weird and mammoth shapes 

 of sand, but here and there blown flat into low areas. One of these 

 just east of Grosse Isle has taken the form of a salt marsh and has 

 become the chief nesting-locality of Pisobia minutilla for the 

 eastern portion of the islands. 



The marsh itself is a large one, for here the distance from gulf 

 to lagoon is over a mile, the whole of this width, save for the dunes 

 on the gulf-side, being covered by its surface. In the other direc- 

 tion it is irregular, being invaded here and there, and in places 

 almost bisected, by tongues of solid earth, sufficient to support a 

 growth of stunted spruces and bayberries. On our arrival no 

 conspicuous flowers flaunted l)right colors in any part of this area, 

 for. the Blue Flags had not yet bloomed on the edges and the Buck- 

 beans {Menyantfies irifoUata) so profuse in a deeper marsh at East 

 Point, were entirely absent. The whole surface was sombre, 

 absolutely unrelieved, all in tones of gray and dark green. A more 

 dreary waste of water and muck can hardly be imagined! Fully 

 a third is water distributed in shallow patches, the rest water- 

 soaked hummocks, dry only on the grassy tussocks that tuft the 

 marsh here and there. On these hillocks the Wilson's Snipes 

 conceal their nests, but the Least Sandpipers place theirs in tufts 

 of short marsh grass surrounding the larger tussocks. 



As one slops over the marsh the little Sand-peeps begin to pipe 

 anxiously and soon one whirls up into the sky to repeat over and 



