366 The Water-fowl Family 



Habitat — Breeds on the Shumagin, Aleutian, and Commander 

 islands, and probably on the Kuril Islands, and possibly on the 

 coast of northeastern Siberia and northwestern Alaska ; wanders 

 northward in late summer and early fall, to the Alaskan coast 

 of Bering Sea and through Bering Straits into the Arctic Ocean, 

 to Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, and Plover Bay, Siberia. Winters 

 on the Commander, Kuril, and Aleutian islands, Kadiak, and the 

 coast of Alaska, south of Sitka. 



The resemblance between this bird and the 

 purple sandpiper is so close that distinction in the 

 winter plumage is made with difficulty. A care- 

 ful comparison shows less of the purple gloss on 

 the back, and the fore neck streaked with white 

 in the western variety. It is common on the 

 Aleutian Islands and the coast of Bering Sea, 

 also on the Siberian shore. These birds have 

 all the habits of the purple sandpiper, frequenting 

 the rocky portions of the coast. When storm 

 driven, they seek the shelter of the smaller bays, 

 congregating in large flocks, allowing easy ap- 

 proach. On the Commander Islands they are 

 found throughout the year. In the spring the 

 flocks break up and the birds pair, selecting a 

 nesting-place, which is on the ground, often in 

 a tussock of grass not far from the water. 



At the beginning of the breeding season the 

 male Aleutian sandpiper, rising on quivering 

 wings from the mossy tundra, utters a loud, melo- 

 dious twitter, almost a song, settling with out- 

 stretched wings as the notes die away ; then seated 



