222 Moore, Least Sandpiper in the Magdalen Islands. [April 



And this brings me to the statement of a conclusion, the proofs 

 for which I wish were more adequate, and yet they are adequate 

 enough, I think, to warrant the pubhshing of what, if true, is a 

 most unusual trait in the life-history of this species. On the 22nd 

 of June I suddenly realized that in all my prolonged visits with 

 these birds, lasting for several hours at a time, I had not once 

 observed mates of any of the five brooding birds. It seemed 

 exceedingly strange when the birds were so repeatedly disturbed, 

 that the mates should not be called in to protest, particularly as 

 both sexes of the other shore birds nesting in the vicinity, the 

 Spotted Sandpipers, the Ring-necked, and the Piping Plovers were 

 always about their nests. From this day on I made particular 

 search for these mates, but without success. Neither about the 

 nest, nor in the great marsh, nor even on the nearby beaches did 

 I once discover a single Least Sandpiper, other than the five, 

 which, despite frequent visits, kept on or close to their respective 

 nests. By the 24th I had come to the natural conclusion that the 

 absent mates were males, although this involved the belief that the 

 singing was being done by the females. For some days it had been 

 plain beyond question of doubt that the brooding birds of at least 

 three of the nests w^ere always the same ones to be found each time 

 on their respective nests, for each of these was too strongly indi- 

 vidualized by various traits to be mistaken for other individuals. 

 It was also absolutely certain that these incubating birds were 

 doing all the singing we heard. On this day, the 24th, I shot the 

 bird, which sang song record No. 3, immediately after I noted her 

 flush from the nest, sing, and return to brood. That evening Mr. 

 Baily dissected her under my observation and found her to be a 

 female! On the following day I made a more determined search 

 than ever for the "males," as we now denoted them, and under 

 this date I find for the third time in my journal the same note: 

 " Have not been able to locate sitting birds' mates anywhere, not 

 even on the beaches" ! Not until July 1, when all the young were 

 out of the nest, did we observe a single mate and that was on the 

 occasion noted above, nor after this did we again note two adult 

 Least Sandpipers together! 



From these facts and observations it seems to be a safe assump- 

 tion that all of the incubating birds were females, that the females 



