LEAST SANDPIPER. 41 



that these flocks of July 10, already several hundred miles south of 

 the breeding grounds, must consist either of barren birds or of those 

 that had suffered loss of their eggs* In southern British Columbia, 

 the average date of arrival is August 11, earliest August 6, 1888 

 (Brooks) ; near Monterey, Calif., August 25, 1897 (Mailliard) ; southern 

 Saskatchewan, July 17, 1906 <Bishop) ; southern Manitoba, July 23, 

 1881 (Macoun); Lincoln, Nebr., August 9, 1900 (Wolcott); southern 

 Ontario, July 28, 1891 (Nash) ; Locust Grove, N. Y., August 18, 1885 

 (Henshaw) ; Boston Harbor, August 27, 1870 (Henshaw) ; Montauk, 

 N. Y., August 14, 1907 (Braislin). In September it reaches its 

 winter home in southern South America. 



The last were seen at Point Barrow, Alaska, August 12, 1883 (Mur- 

 doch), and September 4, 1897 (Stone); southern British Columbia, 

 September 15, 1903 (Brooks); Fort Lyon, Colo., September 28, 1885 

 (Thorne); Lincoln, Nebr., November 3, 1900 (Wolcott); southern 

 Ontario, October 20, 1893 (Elliott) ; New Haven, Conn., October 28, 

 1887 (Woodruff ); Galapagos Islands, October 6, 1897 (Rothschild and 

 Hartert). 



Least Sandpiper. Phobia minutilla (Vieill.). 



Breeding range. — The least sandpiper nests in the far north to 

 northern Ungava (Turner); at Cambridge Bay in southern Franklin 

 (CoUinson); the coast of Mackenzie (MacFarlane) ; and Kotzebue 

 Sound, Alaska (Grinnell). Unlike most of the Arctic breeding shore- 

 birds, it breeds also quite far south to Sable Island (Oates) ; Magdalen 

 Islands (Job); northeastern Quebec (Audubon); upper Hamilton 

 River, Ungava (Low); Fort Churchill, Keewatin (Preble); Lake 

 Marsh, southern Yukon (Bishop) ; and in Alaska south to Yakutat 

 Bay (Merriam). The western limit of the breeding range in Alaska 

 is not yet definitely settled. 



Winter range. — The species is recorded without exact locality from 

 Chile (Salvin), has been taken at several places in Peru (Tacza- 

 nowski), and ranges south in Brazil to Pernambuco (Allen). Thence, 

 it is known throughout northern South America, Central America, 

 Mexico, and the West Indies, the coast of Georgia (Helme), rarely in 

 winter to North Carolina (Bishop), southern Texas (Merrill), southern 

 Arizona (specimen in United States National Museum), and southern 

 California, north at least to Owen Lake (Fisher) and Humboldt Bay 

 (Townsend). 



Migration range. — Beyond the known breeding range, the least 

 Sandpiper is found in fa,ll on the west coast of Greenland north to God- 

 haven, latitude 69° (Walker); at Plover Bay, Siberia (Bean). It 

 occurs during most if not all the summer on the Alaska Peninsula 

 (Osgood) and on the Aleutian Islands west to Unalaska (specimen 

 in United States National Museum). 



Spring migration. — Though wintering so far north, this species is 

 one of the later shorebirds to migrate. Most of the migrants cross 



