THE SANDERLING. 515 



No. 238. 



SANDERLING. 



A. O. U. No. 248. Calidris arenaria (Linn.). 



Description. Adult in summer : Crown and upper parts in general blackish 

 with heavy edging of ashy white, and with much striping, sub-marginal marking, 

 or indenting and barring, of pale rufous ; sides of head, throat, and neck all around, 

 and sides of breast ashy white, strongly tinted with pale rufous, and finely spotted 

 with dusky; remaining under parts pure white, the white well up on sides of 

 rump, and including outer feathers of upper tail-coverts ; wings, marginally, and 

 including exposed portions of quills, fuscous; the greater coverts tipped with 

 white, and the wing-quills changing to white on their inner webs and under sur- 

 faces ; the inner primaries white basally on outer webs ; tail dusky above, ashy gray 

 on lateral feathers; bill and feet black. Adult in winter: Wings dusky, varied, 

 on middle coverts, etc., with white; central upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers 

 dusky; remaining upper parts ashy gray (nearly pearl gray) ; the feathers, espe- 

 cially on crown, with dusky shaft-lines ; entire under parts pure white. Imma- 

 ture in fall : Somewhat like adult in summer, but without rufous anywhere ; back, 

 therefore, showing more black, varied chiefly by white in scant edgings and tips, 

 or in liberal indentations on scapulars and tertials ; feathers of rump nearly square- 

 ended, marked subterminally with light ashy gray, but tipped with a sharp, narrow 

 band of blackish ; under parts white, or sometimes spotted on breast. Length 

 7.00-8.75 (177.8-222.3); wing 4.82 (122.4); tail 2.11 (53.6); bill 1.06 (26.9); 

 tarsus 1.02 (25.9). 



Recognition Marks. Chewink size ; fine, mottled rufous-ash and black of 

 spring birds ; excess of white in fall specimens ; black bill, strongly contrasting with 

 adjacent plumage. Absence of hind toe, of course, distinctive. 



Nesting. Does not breed in Ohio. Nest, on the ground. Kggs, 3 or 4. 

 light olive, or greenish brown, finely speckled and spotted with dark brown, chiefly 

 about larger end. Av. size, 1.41 x .91 (35.8 x 23.1). 



General Range. Nearly cosmopolitan, breeding in the Arctic and subarctic 

 regions ; migrating in America south to Chili and Patagonia. 



Range in Ohio. Fairly common on beaches of Lake Erie during migrations. 

 Not common in the interior. 



THERE is a tide in the affairs of the Sanderling which, taken at the ebb, 

 provides a momentary fortune of stranded crustaceans and marine insects. 

 The bird follows the retreating billow with uplifted wing, quick to seize upon 

 the wave's disclosures, and ready at a sign to avoid the return of the fickle 

 water. It is thus that we find him in May, and again late in August or Sep- 

 tember, along the Lake Erie shore. The birds usually occur in considerable 

 flocks, which deploy and feed silently at the water's edge ; but single individuals 

 or a half dozen are sometimes found in company with Semipalmated Sand- 

 pipers or Semipalmated Plovers. In the latter case they may be readily distin- 

 guished by their larger size, and, in the fall, by their lighter color. I once 



