384 RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 



\ 



whistle, not unlike that given by Peeps. They feed upon small mollusks which they pick 

 off the rocks, when they are left exposed by the falling tide. On one or two occasions, I 

 have seen specimens flying along the hill sides near the ocean but it is rare to find them 

 even thus far from the waves. One or two cases are on record of their occurrence in the 

 interior but they are so decidedly maritime that such instances are quite exceptional. I 

 also find that there is a specimen in the Smithsonian Institution, which was taken on Key 

 Biscayne, Florida, but this is quite beyond their usual range. The Purple Sandpipers 

 depart northward in early spring. 



TRINGA ALPINA. 



Red-backed Sandpiper. 



Trintja A/pina LINN., Syst, Nat., 1; 1766, 249. 



DESCRIPTION. 



SP. Cu. Form, slender. Size, medium. Bill, slender, longer than head, slightly curved and widened at tip. Out- 

 er marginal indentations, twice as deep as inner. Toes, without basal membrane. Tongue, long, thin, and slender, narrow- 

 ing gradually to tip which is pointed, 



COLOR. Adult in summer. Above, dark-brown, each feather, excepting primaries, hrondly edged with bright rufous. 

 Base of secondaries, edges of inner primaries, and tips of greater wing coverts, white. Tail, excepting middle pair of feath- 

 ers which are dark-brown, ashy. Middle of belly, black. Remainder of under parts, white, finely streaked on sides of 

 head, on neck, across breast, and on side-s with dark-brown. 



Adult in. winter. Uniform yellowish-ash above, with the feathers slightly mettled with dark-brown. White, beneath, 

 tinged across breast and on sides with ashy, and these parts are very finely streaked with dark-brown. 



Youny. Similar to the winter adult, but some of the feathers above are slightly edged with rufous. Bill and feet, 

 black, and iris, brown, in all stages. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Readily known by the long, curved bill and black patch beneath, in summer; and at other seasons by the uniform ashy 

 colors as described. Distributed in summer, throughout the Arctic Regions; wintering from Maryland, southward. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Average measurements of specimens from Kastern America. Length, 8'32; stretch, 15-25; wing, 4'80; tail, 2 1 15; bill, 

 1-35; tarsus, I'OO. Longest specimen, 8'75; greatest extent of wing, 15'75; longest wing, 5'00; tail, 2-30; bill, 1'50; tarsus, 

 1-05. Shortest specimen, 8-00; smallest extent of wing, H'50; shortest wing, 4'75; tail, 2-00; bill, '90; tarsus, -95. 



DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 



Eyys, placed on the ground in a depression of the soil, on a little grass. They are from two to four in number, decid- 

 edly pyrifbrm in shape, varying from greenish to yellowish-ash in color, spotted, blotched, and dotted irregularly and thick- 

 ly, with reddish-brown of varying shades, and more sparcely with umber. Dimensions from '95 x ) '30 to TOO x T35. 



HABITS. 



When the first cold blasts come sweeping down from the North, driving great waves 

 of southward flying shore birds before them; when the honk of the Wild Geese is heard, and 

 the sand spits are whitened with Gulls, the little Red-backed Sandpipers, or Dunlins, ap- 

 pear. Late as they are, they do not seem to be in any hurry but linger about the sandy 

 shores of Massachusetts, from early October until late in November, indeed, the first snow 

 often finds them here. I found them very common on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay, 

 on the second of November, 1878, and from this point, south, as far as Indian River, Flor- 

 ida, (hey were abundant but always appeared to prefer the sandy beaches to the muddy flats. 

 At this season, the birds were all in gray attire but I found them in the bright summer 

 plumage at Duimne,tt's, late in May, at which time, they were preparing to migrate north- 

 ward. Occasionally stragglers of this and oilier species of shore birds which breed in the 

 far North, will remain in Massachusetts durkig summer. 



