114 NATUEAL HTSTOEY COLLECTIONS UsT ALASKA. 



At tlie Yukon mouth, ou- June 3, a female was driven from her eggs and flew a few feet away, 

 where she stood crouching, with her wings hanging quivering nervelessly by her sides, uttering, 

 meanwhile, as she watched me, a low, plaintive, long-drawn cheeping note which was so expres- 

 sive of maternal grief and pain that I had not the heart to touch her treasures, but left the tender 

 mother in possession of her undisturbed home. This is one of the few instances I have met where 

 the notes of the parent bird have assumed such human expressiveness when their nest has been 

 approached that any but a heart lacking all feeling must have been affected. The most striking 

 instance besides the one just detailed was the sorrow shown by a male Snow-bunting for his mate 

 which I shot on Saint Lawrence Island. 



The eggs of this Sandpiper are sometimes placed on a thin layer of dead grass stems, or willow 

 leaves, loosely arranged, but very commonly the mat of dry willow leaves or grass afforded by the 

 spot chosen serves as the nest without special arrangement. On June 9, 1879, in company with two 

 natives, I landed on the coast of Norton Sound near the Yukon mouth, and built a large camp-fire 

 of the abundant drift-wood strewn about. Just as the fire was well under way we noted the 

 strange motions of one of these birds ; she advanced within a few feet of us when some slight 

 movement would cause her to run away for a few yards, only to retrace her steps again in a few 

 seconds. I made the men remain quiet, and in about half a minute the anxious mother came trip- 

 ping along, casting an anxious eye at us as she did so, and, to my surprise, she slipped into a tuft 

 of grass not 10 feet away, and, covering her eggs, sat there in full view. This was so near the large 

 fire that the heat could be felt by us when standing by the eggs. The bird ran off as we drew near, 

 and my workman extended himself full length on the ground with outstretched hand close beside the 

 nest. The rest of us retired, and the bird soon returned as before, and, without paying the slight- 

 est attention to the man, she actually crossed his arm and ensconced herself upon the eggs 

 and was caught by a turn of the hand. After looking at the terrified creature I released her, 

 but she refused to trust us again, and kept 20 to 25 yards away. I scarcely need remark that her 

 eggs were left undisturbed as a reward for her devotion. During all this time, as is usually the 

 case, the male kept at a safe distance, and took matters much more philosophically than did his 

 partner. 



Ou one occasion, as I was transferring the eggs of one of these Sandpipers to my basket, the 

 female which was close by, having been started from the nest, saw another female of her kind 

 come tripping along through what she evidently considered her territory, for extending her head 

 and ruffling her feathers she ran at the intruder and drove her away. 



The eggs measure from 1.30 by .92 to 1.11 by .82 inches, and there is an equally great varia- 

 tion in the markings. The ground is ordinarily pale clay color, shading toward pale brownish 

 clay. In many instances, usually among the larger eggs, the ground color is nearly or quite 

 concealed by fine, light reddish brown spots or specks. The other extreme has the spots gathered 

 mainly about the large end in large irregular spots and blotches, and the intermediate ones have 

 the shell about half hidden by markings of chocolate and umber-brown in small spots, a little 

 more dense at the large end. In some eggs the spots are rich chocolate and the light or slightly 

 reddish-brown cast in the markings even of the darkest colored eggs usually serves to readily sep- 

 arate these eggs from any others with which I am familiar. 



Early in July the young are on the wing and begin to gather in flocks toward the first of 

 August. The last of these birds are seen on the Coast of Norton Sound and the Yukon mouth the 

 first of October. 



Although it is not recorded from the Seal and Aleutian Islands, I have seen the bird at Saint 

 Lawrence Island, south of Bering Straits, and at several points along the northeastern coast of 

 Siberia, and it frequents the Arctic coasts of Alaska in addition (o being found throughout the 

 interior along streams where suitable flats occur. Murdoch notes it as a fall visitor at Point 

 Barrow. It has been found in abundance on the southeast coast of the Territory, where it occurs 

 during the migrations. 



The young in the first plumage present the following characters : Feathers of crown dark 

 brown, edged with dull fulvous; feathers of back with dark centers edged with a mixture of white 

 or grayish and dull rusty and fulvous red. Wing-coverts dull ashy brown edged with dull buff". 



