194 



oe:n^ithologist 



[Yol. 12-:N'o. 12 



tain that it requires as many as four seasons at 

 least for it to get its adult plumage. Taking 

 spring specimens for instance, as at this period 

 we do not find any in the young of the year 

 plumage. We see specimens in the first changes 

 of the young of the year into adult, being 

 speckled with black on the belly and slight 

 changes not seen in the young of the year. By 

 examining closely, we can pick out specimens 

 with the belly much speckled with black, about 

 half changed into the adult plumage, and 

 then the third stage, which will be very near 

 the adult, having its belly mostly black, and its 

 forehead and sides of neck showing ashy white, 

 and then the last or adult with the under parts 

 pui'e black and forehead and sides of neck pure 

 white. We now see one of the handsomest of 

 our shore birds with plumage so different from 

 the young of the year that we can scarcely be- 

 lieve it to be the same bird. This adult or full 

 plumage, which has taken four seasons to per- 

 fect, is retained 1 am sure on the New England 

 coast in the fall. The above changes I have no- 

 ticed will apply to the Golden Plover f Charad- 

 rius dominicus)^ Eed-breasted Snipe {Macror- 

 hamphus griseus), Robin Snipe (Tringa can- 

 utus). Sanderling {Calidris arenaria), and sev- 

 eral others. 



The adult bird arrives in the fall migration 

 first, and is followed in a month or six 

 weeks by the young of the year, and I have no- 

 ticed that the birds in adult plumage are closely 

 followed by those in the mixed dress and then 

 the young of the year. I think the reason why 

 the young of the year do not arrive with the 

 adults or older birds, is that that they are not 

 matured enough to make the long flight the 

 older birds do when they leave their northern 

 homes. That where we see one bird in the adult 

 plumage in the fall, we see many in the im- 

 mature, is due partly from the fact there would 

 be more young after the breeding season 

 than old, and partly that the old birds migrate 

 further South, and being more wary fly far out 

 to sea, only a few touching on our New En- 

 gland coast. I have noticed that most of the 

 shore birds seen on the Florida coast in the 

 winter are young birds. I collected and ob- 

 served Sanderlings at all times during the win- 

 ter and into spring, and did not take one in 

 adult plumage, or see any changing into that 

 until all at once they began to put in an appear- 

 ance in adult plumage. The New England 

 shore birds that I have had an opportunity to 

 study at the spring and fall migrations, and 

 which I found to retain their adult plumage in 

 the fall, are as follows : 



Turnstone {Strepsilas interpres) . 



Black-bellied Plover (Squatarola helvetica). 



Golden Plover (Charadriiis dominicus). 



Semiplamated Plover (^Egialites semiplama- 

 tus) . 



Piping Plover {^gialites melodus). 



Wilson's Snipe {Gallanago media loilsoni). 



Red-breasted Snipe (Macrohamphus griseus). 



Robin Snipe, or Red-breasted Sandpiper 

 ( Tringa canutus) . 



Pectoral Sandpiper (Actodromas iiiaculata). 



Bonaparte's Sandpiper {Actodromas fuscicol- 

 lis) . 



Least Sandpiper (Actodromas minutilhi). 



Semiplamated Sandpiper {Ereuuetes pnsillus). 



Sanderling (Caiidris arenaria). 



Greater Yellow-legs (Totanus melanolenucs) . 



Yellow-legs {Totanus flavipes). 



Buft'-breasted Sandpiper {Tryngites rufescens). 



Spotted Sandpiper {Tringoides macularius). 



Iludsonian Curlew {Namenins hudsonicus), 



Eskimo Curlew {Numenius horealis). 



Stilt Sandpiper {Microphalama hiuiantojrns), 

 taken in the fall in the changing plumage of 

 young into adult. There are several other 

 shore birds that I have taken specimens of in 

 the fall, but as they have passed out of my 

 hands, I am not certain what plumage they were 

 collected in. 



I have not seen any specimens of Red-backed 

 Sandpipers {Pelidna alpina americand)^ in full 

 adult plumage in the fall, the first arrivals 

 wearing mostly adult plumage, but as I have 

 been informed by gunners that they have shot 

 specimens in full adult plumage in the fall, I 

 cannot make a single exception as j^et of our 

 New England shore birds not retaining their 

 adult plumage in the fall. 



We should be pleased to hear from our cor- 

 respondents on this subject, the plumage of our 

 LimicoliJR. 



Up a Stump. 



BY WALTER HOXIE. 



My woodpeckers have gone; I don't know 

 when they went, but I missed them to-day. I 

 ting around that way to see how they were get- 

 went along but the old stump was silent and de- 

 serted. They have been great company for me 

 ever since I found them carpentering away so 

 busily one breezy day last spring. (What I 

 really wanted was to get their eggs, for nat- 

 uralists are all thieves by instinct, although on 



