SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 



125 



the preponderating colour on the secondaries is brown instead of white, 

 the amount of the latter colour both at the tip of the feather and at the 

 base being very much less than in its Old-World ally ; the amount of white 

 on the outer tail-feather is also less. The basal portion of the bill is much 

 paler, but otherwise the soft parts do not differ in colour. After the autumn 

 moult it is extremely probable that the underparts are unspotted, as in 

 immature birds ; but this is a question upon which American ornithologists 

 give us no information whatever*, with the exception of Audubon. Young 

 in first plumage differ from those of the Common Sandpiper in having no 

 dark streaks on the throat. Young in down scarcely differ from those 

 of the Old-World species. 



* The Spotted Sandpiper, like its Old-World representative, migrates from its breeding- 

 quarters in its abraded summer dress. There is no doubt that immature birds do not get 

 spotted breasts until spring ; but I have been unable to find winter skins with spotted 

 underparts, or examples with unspotted underparts which did not show signs of imma- 

 turity on the wing-coverts. The difficulty in this case is that both moults take place in 

 the winter-quarters of the bird in South America, from which country our information is 

 meagre in the extreme. Audubon says distinctly that the lower parts of the young in 

 winter are without spots, and he also says that the young differ from the old until the 

 approach of winter, when, with the exception of their being slightly smaller, no difference 

 can be perceived. The inference of course is that the adult in winter is unspotted; but it 

 is not easy to understand where Audubon could have seen this bird in winter, unless a few 

 remain in Texas until their autumn moult is completed. 



^ ;. 



COMMON SANDPIPER'S NEST. 



