378 The Water-fowl Family 



Adult male and female in winter — Upper parts, dark brownish gray, 

 the feathers with indistinct, dark centres ; superciliary stripe and 

 lower parts, white ; jugulum, light ashy, indistinctly streaked ; 

 otherwise similar to the summer plumage. 



Young — Similar to the summer plumage of the adult, but the scapu- 

 lars without bars, and tipped with white ; wing-coverts, bordered 

 with ochraceous ; jugulum, pale fulvous, slightly streaked ; iris, 

 brown ; bill, black ; legs and feet, dusky. 



Downy young — Above, bright cinnamon-rufous mottled with black, 

 many feathers tipped with white; line from bill through eye, 

 blackish ; forehead, orbital region and lower parts, brownish 

 white ; spot of bright cinnamon-rufous on side of chest. 



Measurements — Length, 6 inches; wing, 3.75 inches; culmen, .88 

 inch ; tarsus, .75 inch ; middle toe, .60 inch. 



Eggs — Four in number ; light drab in color, thinly marked with 

 brown spots; measure 1.15 by .85 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds from Sable Island, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Kene- 

 watin, Assiniboia, and probably eastern British Columbia, north 

 to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, at Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, 

 and Franklin Bay, and probably in Cumberland and Greenland ; 

 winters from the Bahamas, West Indies, Florida, Louisiana, 

 and California, south to Brazil, Peru, and the Galapagos ; com- 

 mon throughout the United States in migration, and occurs in 

 Bermuda, and a few are found in summer in Jamaica, Florida, 

 and Louisiana. Recorded from Siberia and Europe. 



Of all our shore-bird family this mite is the 

 smallest and is widely scattered throughout North 

 America, ranging from the Arctic Sea to Brazil, 

 — passing through our domains on their spring 

 and summer migration, in the interior and along 

 the coast. 



The least sandpiper breeds in the Arctic regions 

 as far south as Labrador and the islands in the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, where it has been taken on 

 the Magdalens, but the nest is seldom found. It 



