AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



287 



H^IJ^&NDERLING. 



A- O U- No. 248. 



RANGE. 



(Calidris arenaria.) 



Breeds within the Arctic Circle and migrates on both coasts to south- 

 ern South America. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Length 8 in. Extent about 15 in. Eye brown; bill and feet black. 

 Adults in summer; — Above variegated with black, rusty and gray: be- 

 low white, the throat and breast being spotted with black and washed 

 with rusty. In all plumages the bases of the primaries, secondaries 

 and the tips of the greater coverts are white. Adult in winter. Back 

 grayish with dusky shaft lines: below pure white with no traces of 

 rusty in the plumage. Young. Similar to the winter adult with the 

 back very strongly marked with black and white. 



NEST AND EGGS. 



' Sanderlings nest in the extreme north, laying their eggs in slight de- 

 pressions in the soil among the beach grass. The cavity is usually 

 lined with grasses and during June and July three or four eggs are laid; 

 these have'a greenish or ashy brown ground and are brightly marked 

 with blackish and'brownish blotches. 



HABITS. 

 Owing to their northerly distribution .and the lack of observation 

 of those who have collected them in their summer home, we know but 

 little of the home life of the Sanderling, but in winter immense num- 

 bers of therm swarmfalong both coasts, they being outnumbered possi- 

 bly only by the Least Sandpipers. Flocks of fifty to one hundred in- 

 dividuals are of common occurence during September and October 

 when their migration is at its height, and they are killed by the thous- 

 and and sent to market by gunners all along the coast. As an article 

 of food they are little to be desired owing to their small size and they 

 are so common, so tame and fly in such compact flocks that their capt- 

 ure is anything but exciting yet men will devote their whole time to 



