142 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



Range. North America, mainly in the interior, breeding far northward, south in winter to 

 southern South America. 



Range in North Carolina. So far, only taken on Currituck beach in the fall. 



This species finds a place in our list on the authority of F. W. Kobbe, of New 

 York City, who, in The Auk for January, 1912, page 108, records the capture of 

 three specimens by Whitlock, on September 12, 1911. Kobbe himself saw a flock 

 of six, two days later. He says the species appeared to be unknown to the local 

 gunners. 



"This is a rare species on the Atlantic Coast. Dr. Hatch writes of it as observed by him in 

 Minnesota: 'They are an extremely active species when on the wing, and essentially ploverine in 

 all respects, seeking sandy, barren prairies, where they live upon grasshoppers, crickets, and 

 insects generally, and ants and their eggs specially. I have found them repasting upon minute 

 mollusks on the sandy shores of small and shallow ponds, where they were apparently little more 

 suspicious than the Solitary Sandpipers are notably. The flight is in rather compact form, dipping 

 and rising alternately, and with a disposition to return again to the neighborhood of their former 

 feeding-places.' " Chapman's Birds of Eastern North America. 



Genus Actitis (Illig.) 

 125. Actitis macularia (Linn.}. SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 



Ads. in summer. Upperparts brownish gray with a faint greenish luster, head and neck more 

 or less streaked, and back barred or spotted with black; inner tail-feathers like back, outer ones 

 white with blackish bars; underparts white; everywhere spotted with black. Juv. -Upperparts 

 brownish gray, with a greenish tinge, back faintly and wing-coverts conspicuously barred with 

 black and buffy; underparts pure white, unspotted, but slightly washed with grayish on breast. 

 Ads. and Juv. in winter. Similar, but back without bars. L., 7.50; W., 4.20; Tar., 90; B., .95. 

 (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. Both Americas, breeding from South Carolina to Alaska, and wintering from South 

 Carolina to Brazil. 



Range in North Carolina. Whole State, common during migrations, and occurring also in 

 summer, though less commonly. 



FIG. 104. SPOTTED SANDPIPER. 



This is our most common inland sandpiper. It is found wherever conditions 

 are suitable. Around mud-puddles, small branches, creeks, lakes, ponds, rivers 

 anywhere and everywhere that a little water accumulates and a log or patch of mud 

 or gravel gives it a resting and feeding place, this species may be found. One may 

 travel along the course of almost any stream or lake shore in the State and seldom 

 be out of sight of one or more of these birds during the spring and fall migrations. 

 It is in fact the most widely distributed and characteristic bird of our water-courses. 

 It is a summer resident to some extent, and possibly nests with us, though we have 

 no record of its eggs having been taken in North Carolina. 



