^1912 J Moore, Least Sandpiper in the Magdalen Islands. 219 



in a damp grassy field, was almost as tame as the marsh bird. 

 This being the first day of sunlight we had enjoyed with these 

 birds, I determined to catch her too and secure a good photograph. 

 With the camera set up five feet from the nest, a ten foot hose 

 attached, and the bulb in my left hand, I proceeded to work my 

 right hand toward the bird. From the start she proved to be more 

 nervous than the marsh bird and, when my hand got close, flut- 

 tered off precipitately. Then, I curved the hand about the nest 

 hoping she would creep under it as the marsh bird had done, but 

 she began to pull at the grasses, we had tramped down in the 

 vicinity. At first this action had been merely protective, for she 

 began it sitting on the nest, lifting the blades and making them 

 assume their former upright position of concealment. Now on 

 the contrary the act was a nervous one, for she straightened 

 grasses some distance away and always did it, when I circled the 

 nest with my hand. Each time I moved away she would return 

 and incubate. It was evident that there was more chance of 

 catching her by moving the hand towards her than by waiting for 

 her to return. Proceeding in this fashion after an hour's effort I 

 accomplished the trick. She struggled violently, but did not 

 attempt to pick my hand. 



Like the other Least Sandpipers she possessed a flight song and 

 gave snatches of it from the ground. Once she rendered it entire, 

 within a foot of my hand! It consisted of a series of trills, which 

 ascended just one octave on a minor chord. (Song record No. 2.) 

 The tone quality was pure and sweet and rendered pathetic by the 

 minor chord, which served as its medium. This, however, is 

 distinctly a flight song and, I believe, delivered from the ground 

 only under spur of excitement. Slipping out of my hand a moment 

 later she uttered it with a wild frenzy, as she whirled excitedly aloft. 

 Out over the Lagoon she went, farther and farther, higher and 

 higher, till her wee form vanished from sight, but for several 

 minutes afterwards that pathetic ascension of sound reached my 

 ears, constantly leaping upwards, only to return to its starting 

 point and leap again. Three minutes later I heard it once more 

 approaching and shortly after, she pitched down near the nest 

 and in a few seconds was once more brooding, as if no untoward 

 incident had happened! 



