SANDERLING 483 



Pairing began about the middle of June. The peculiar pairing 

 flight of the male was to be seen and heard when the weather was fine, 

 especially in the evening. Uttering what Herr Manniche describes as 

 " a snarling or slight neighing sound," he mounts to a height of some 

 two metres from the surface of the ground on rapidly vibrating wings, 

 to continue at this height his flight for a short distance, most frequently 

 in a straight line, but sometimes in small circles. 



When excited he frequently sits on the top of a solitary large 

 stone, his dorsal feathers puffed out, his tail spread and his wings half 

 let down, producing his curious subdued pairing tones. He, however, 

 soon returns to the female, who remains mute, and approaches her 

 with slow, almost creeping movements. After the act of pairing, both 

 birds rush away in rapid flight, to return soon after to the nesting-place. 

 The males may also be observed in pairing flight when no female can 

 be seen in the neighbourhood. 



The male is in the pairing time very quarrelsome, and does not 

 permit any strange bird to intrude on the selected domain. He seems 

 to be most aggressive towards birds of his own species. 1 



This description of the courting flight of the male agrees with 

 that given by Dr. Walter. He describes the note as harsh, and 

 renders it " trr-trr-trr." 2 



When they settled down to nesting, the birds, according to 

 Manniche, became very silent, and were then very difficult to locate. 

 The nests were found, mostly on small patches of stone-covered clayey 

 ground in the moors and marshes. They nested also on the tablelands, 

 but here the nests, being farther apart, were difficult to find. The 

 stony areas were sparsely covered with scattered patches of Arctic 

 plants such as Salix ardlca, Dryas odoywtala, and Saxifraga oppositifolia, 

 and the sanderlings adhered strictly to these, never nesting on the 

 moors or perfectly bare plains. 3 As a rule the nests were on the 



1 A. L. V. Manniche, op. cit., pp. 140, 141. : Ibis, 1904, p. 230. 



3 A preference for similar localities was observed by Dr. Walter in the Taimyr Peninsula, 

 where the sanderlings avoided the grass-covered portions of the tundra chosen by other Waders 

 (Ibis, 1904, p. 280). 



