SNIPE AND SANDPIPERS: Family Scolopacidae [ 163 ] 



THE HANDSOME Red-backed Sandpiper is a common migrant on the coast 

 that in its spring plumage is not likely to be confused with any other 

 species. In the fall, however, in its more demure dress, it is harder for 

 the less observant to tell it from the hosts of other sandpipers present, 

 but its heavy body and comparatively long bill serve to distinguish it 

 from most of the others. This species was first reported for Oregon by 

 Townsend (1839), and Newberry (1857) included it in his Oregon list. 

 Johnson (1880) reported it as a migrant in the Willamette Valley, and 

 Woodcock (1902.) listed a specimen taken on the coast of Lincoln County, 

 May 18, 1888, the date curiously coinciding with Jewett's record at 

 Netarts, May 18, 1913, the latest date either of us has for the State. 

 Walker (1917), however, reported it from Silver Lake, June 4, the latest 

 date for the State and one of the few records for eastern Oregon. Willett 

 (1919) saw several at Malheur Lake May 14. Neither of us has observed 

 this bird east of the Cascades, no doubt because comparatively little field 

 work has been carried on in the water areas during the proper season. 

 In our experience, the species is most common in late April and early 

 May and is sometimes present on the beaches and mud flats by the 

 hundreds the first week in May. In the fall it becomes common in October 

 (earliest date, October 4, Lane County), when other species of sand- 

 pipers are on the decrease and some of them have moved on southward. 

 The birds remaining after November i are usually those that have elected 

 to spend the winter on the coast, where they may be found feeding along 

 the beaches at low tide or on the mud flats of the bays in small flocks, 

 sometimes in company with a few Least Sandpipers. 



Long-billed Dowitcher: 



Limnodromus griseus scolopaceus (Say) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults in summer: A light stripe over eye and dusky stripe from eye 

 to bill; upper parts, except rump and lower back, specked and mottled with black, 

 brown, and buff; rump white, spotted with black, tail feathers barred black and 

 white; entire under parts bright cinnamon specked on throat and barred on sides 

 and lower tail coverts with dusky. Adults in winter: belly and line over eye white; 

 rest of plumage gray. Young: similar to adults but back and crown mottled with 

 black and ochraceous; belly and chest suffused with light cinnamon. Length: 1 1 .00- 

 12.. 50, wing 5.40-6.00, bill x. 10-3. oo, tarsus 1.35-1.75." (Bailey) Nest: A small 

 depression in the ground, scantily lined with grass and leaves. Eggs: 4, olive in 

 color, spotted and blotched with bright to dull brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from Point Barrow to mouth of Yukon, east to 

 northwestern Mackenzie. Winters from Louisiana, Florida, central California, 

 Cuba, Jamaica, and Mexico south to Panama and Ecuador; in migration on Pacific 

 Coast and in western Mississippi Valley; occasional in summer (nonbreeding birds) 

 south to western Ecuador. Casual on Atlantic Coast from Nova Scotia (Sable 

 Island) southward and on northern coast of eastern Siberia south to Japan. In 

 Oregon: Occurs as both a spring and fall migrant in eastern and western Oregon. 



