Birds of Oregon and Washington 207 



This Sandpiper may be recognized both by 

 its size and its reddish back. The birds move 

 in flocks, and with a uniformity and unity excel- 

 ling, perhaps, those of the two species already 

 described. They are as one bird in their rapid 

 turns and winged evolutions. These Sandpipers 

 are larger than those before named. 



The bird nests in Alaska, along the shores 

 of Behring Sea, arriving there about June ist. 

 An observer describes their courtship as most 

 beautiful and entertaining. "As the lover's 

 suit approaches its end, the handsome suitor 

 becomes exalted, and in his moments of excite- 

 ment he rises fifteen or twenty yards, and 

 hovering on tremulous wings over the object 

 of his passion, pours forth a perfect gush of 

 music, till he glides back to earth exhausted, 

 but ready to repeat the effort a few moments 

 later." Elliot. 



The killing of these birds for game is alto- 

 gether unjustifiable. Their meat is not savory, 

 and to shoot into a flock of these beautiful and 

 graceful creatures on the wing, ought to be im- 

 possible to a man who has within him a sense of 

 the beautiful or a heart of compassion. 



