BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 127 
coverts on each side varied with whitish. Middle tail-feathers 
brownish-black, the others plain gray with paler margins. 
Jugulum tinged with light, dull yellowish-brown, spotted and 
streaked with illy-defined blackish markings, as are also the 
sides under the wings. Throat and other under parts white, 
‘unmarked. Feet black like the bill. 
‘Length, 74; extent, 154; wing, 4.9; bill, 0.85; tarsus and 
middle toe and claw the same.” 
TRINGA MINUTILLA VieILLotT. (242.) 
LEAST SANDPIPER. 
Abundant everywhere in Minnesota during the migrations. 
The numbers greatly reduced about the first week in May, but 
no time during the remainder of the season when there is not 
a fair representation until after the first sharp frosts. They 
reach the locality where I live, about the 20th of April, in 
backward seasons still later. Their first appearance here is in 
flocks of ten to fifteen, which after about ten days more, grow 
steadily less in numbers until the species entirely disappears 
as flocks. 
There is no week in a]l the summer when at least one indivi- 
dual may not be seen in the course of a day’s collecting in the 
marshes, amongst the muddy, or sandy shored ponds and 
sloughs, or along the pebbly beach of a clear pure lake. 
Never more than one at a time until in August, when the num- 
ber increases from time to time, until by the 20th, they are seen 
in considerable flocks. Of course they are breeding, but just 
where, how, and when, are the unanswered questions still 
pending. Four eggs were brought to me in 1880, said by the 
kindly donor to be those of the Least Sandpiper, and I guess 
that they were, but how am I toknow? Thebird which covered 
them had not been secured. They answered the description, 
‘* Buffy-yellow, thickly spotted with brown and drab.” But 
there are others that have all of these characteristics. I am not 
certain that I have ever seen the eggs of this species. But I 
do not hesitate to say that the Least Sandpiper breeds nearly 
everywhere in the State. : 
Dr. Hvoslef reports the species present at Lanesboro late in 
May, andon the 4thof August, 1879. Mr. Washburn, who visi- 
ted the Red river valley on the 28th of July, 1885, and re- 
mained until the 12th of September, found them at Crookston 
‘‘in muddy fields, and on plowed ground, over which water 
was standing; and again at Mud lake.” He further remarics 
