380 The Water-fowl Family 



light strikes their breasts and there is a white 

 gleam, another second, and the backs show dark. 

 Their note is a soft peep and hence the name. It 

 is heard when a few birds are in quest of a flock. 

 I once saw a pigeon hawk in close pursuit of a 

 least sandpiper, and within a few feet of its prey ; 

 the little bird dodged it repeatedly, finally effect- 

 ing its escape by joining a flock of larger birds. 

 The young birds of the year follow the old, and 

 all through August the least and semipalmated 

 sandpipers remain with us, diminishing in num- 

 bers toward the end of the month, the Bona- 

 parte's sandpiper arriving in their stead. It is 

 early May before we see them again. 



LONG-TOED STINT 

 (Tringa damacensis) 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage — Top of head, nape, 

 back, and scapulars, black, tipped with chestnut ; wing-coverts, 

 dark brown, with grayish edges ; rump and upper tail-coverts, 

 black; lateral coverts, white; superciliary stripe, white; loral 

 stripe, sides of head, buff; throat, white ; jugulum, buff, spotted 

 with brown ; rest of under parts, pure white ; iris, dark brown ; 

 bill, black ; feet and legs, yellowish green. 



Measurements — Length, 5.50 inches; wing, 3.50 inches; culmen, 

 .75 inch ; tarsus, .75 inch ; middle toe, with claw, .90 inch. 



Habitat — Eastern Asia, breeding in eastern Siberia, Kamchatka, the 

 Kuril Islands, and probably the Commander Islands ; passes south 

 in winter, through China and Japan, to India, Burma, the Malay 

 Archipelago, and Australia ; accidental on Otter Island, Alaska. 



This bird is an Asiatic variety, its eastern range 

 being marked by Japan and the Indian Archi- 



