S bore-bird Shooting 377 



Mexico and Central America. It frequents the 

 shores of lakes and rivers, occurring generally in 

 flocks of five or six, and is gentle and unsuspect- 

 ing. Occasionally the bird is seen away from 

 water and has been noticed at the summit of 

 Mount Evans in Colorado, an altitude of 14,000 

 feet. The Arctic regions of North America and 

 Alaska are its breeding-grounds. The nest is a 

 mere hollow in the grass, usually on dry ground ; 

 and the female is a close sitter, using every arti- 

 fice to distract the attention of the intruder from 

 her eggs, running close in front and feigning 

 wounded. On the Atlantic Coast this bird is rare, 

 and formerly but few specimens were recorded, 

 but are more common than originally supposed. 

 The writer has found the birds near New Haven, 

 Connecticut, repeatedly, usually early in October, 

 and in two instances in company with red-backed 

 sandpipers. 



LEAST SANDPIPER 

 (Tringa minutilla) 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage Top of head, light 

 grayish brown, or fulvous, thickly streaked with black ; back and 

 scapulars, black ; feathers, bordered with rusty, the tips of some 

 of the feathers often whitish; rump and middle upper tail- 

 coverts, dark brown; lateral upper tail-coverts, white, with 

 markings of gray ; middle tail feathers, dusky, with pale edges ; 

 remainder, light gray, with white shafts ; wing-coverts, grayish 

 brown, with dark centres and pale edges ; a light superciliary 

 stripe; neck and jugulum, pale fulvous, streaked with dusky; 

 throat and entire lower parts, white. 



