330 LEAST SANDPIPER. 



TRINGA MINUT1LLA. 



Least Sandpiper. 

 Trinya minulil/a VIEILL., Nouv. Diet., XXXIV; 1819, 452. 



DESCRIPTION. 



SP. Cn. Form, slender. Size, very small. Tail, doubly einarginate. Tongue,- long, tliin, and slender, narrowing 

 gradually to tip which is pointed. Bill, slender, not widened at tip. Outer marginal indentations, twice as d<;i>p ;is inner. 

 Toes, without basal membrane. 



COLOR. Adult. Above, dark-brown, with the feathers, excepting primaries, bordered with yellowislijash, rufous, 

 and white. Tail feathers, excepting middle pair which are dark-brown, ashy. Line from bill over eye and entire under 

 parts, white, tinged on sides of head, across breast, and on sides with yellowish-ash, and these parts are finely streaked 

 with dark-brown 



Young. Similar to the adult but much more rufous above and lacks, in a great measure, thestreakings below. Bill, 

 black, iris, brown, legs, greenish-yellow, in all stages. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Known by the small size, slender bill, greenish legs, and absence of basal toe membrane. Distributed, in summer, 

 from Labrador, northward; wintering from the Carolinas, southward. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Average measurements of specimens from Eastern North America. Length, 6' 13; stretch, 12'08; wing, 3'63; tail, 1-62; 

 bill, '85; tarsus, '72. Longest specimen, 6'76; greatest extent of wing, 12' 17; longest wing, 3'80; tail, 1'85; bill, '95; tar- 

 sus, '80. Shortest specimen, o - 60; smallest extent of wing, 1TOO; shortest wing, 3'58: tail, T50; bill, 'H5; tarsus, '05. 



DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 



Eggs, placed on the ground in a slight depression of the soil, on a little grass, etc., three or four in number, decided- 

 ly pyriform in shape, varying from creamy to buff in color, spotted and blotched irregularly, and quite thickly, with brown 

 of varying shades. Dimensions from '70 x '90 to '75x 1-00. 



HABITS. 



Least Sandpipers or Peeps of sportsmen are, perhaps, the best known of game birds, 

 for they are the legitimate prey of every one, from the ragged urchin who chooses to en- 

 danger his life by burning gunpowder in a dilapidated tube which was formerly a gun, to 

 the city exquisite who, armed with costly breech loader, sallies out to make havoc among the 

 Curlew and Plover but whose greatest actual achievement consists in knocking over a few 

 Peeps as they sit by the pools on the marshes. In habits, these pretty little shore birds 

 do not differ from the majority of the members of the genus. They are fond of the marsh- 

 es and it is not uncommon to start solitary individuals or small flocks consisting of three 

 or four specimens, from out the grass, when they will rise with a feeble cry and make 

 their way swiftly, in an eccentric flight across the flats. They may also often be seen on 

 the beaches in company with larger wading birds, and it is noticeable that the small species 

 are seldom, if ever, molested by the larger. Thus I have frequently observed a number of 

 Peeps running about among a flock of Sickle-billed Curlew, without the latter appearing 

 to pay the slightest attention to the little birds, even when they passed directly beneath their 

 long bills. In time of migration, these birds closely resemble the preceding species. 



TRINGA BAIRDI. 



Baird's Sandpiper. 



Trinya Bairdi SCL., P. Z. S.; 1807, 332. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Si'. On. Form, slender. Size, rather small. Bill, slender, but little shorter than the head, and slightly widened at 

 tip. Toes, without basal membrane. Tongue, long, thin, and slender, tapering toward tip which is pointed. Outer mar- 

 ginal indentations, twice as deep as inner. 



