CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 16/ 



Fraser valley. Spreadborough saw one individual in a marsh on 

 the Grand prairie, Peace river, Atha., in 1903, and found it in large 

 flocks at Stubbs island, west coast of Vancouver Island, August, 

 1893- 



Breeding Notes. — ^This species arrives quite early at the Yukon 

 mouth, often by the loth May. Towards the end of the month 

 it is plentiful and is beginning to breed. On June i6th, while cross- 

 ing a tussock-covered hill-top, over a mile from any water, I was 

 surprised to see a female of this species flutter fi'om her nest about 

 six feet in front of me and skulk off through the grass with trailing 

 wings and depressed head for some ten or fifteen yards. She stood, 

 tiearly concealed by a tuft of grass, and watched me as I pillaged 

 her nest of its treasures. The eggs, four in number, rested in a 

 shallow depression formed by the bird's body in the soft moss, and 

 without a trace of lining. Other nests taken were of the same 

 character. By the last of July the young birds can fly with their 

 parents. (Nelson.) A few nests of this species were taken between 

 the 2ist June and July ist. The eggs were always four in number. 

 (Macfarlane.) I was astonished to find this Arctic-breeding bird 

 nesting amongst the muskegs in northern Alberta. On June 3rd, 

 1906, 1 found a nest containing four handsome eggs. It was built 

 in the middle of a bunch of grass like that of the Wilson snipe but 

 its eggs are not so olive in ground colour and are more like those of 

 the buff-breasted sandpiper. The bird sat close but was easily 

 identified as it flew and settled a short distance off. (Raine.) Mr. 

 Raine sends this note under the heading of M. griseus but from what 

 is known of the range of the two species the bird seen seems more 

 likely to have been M. scolopaceus. Until specimens are collected 

 the nesting of this bird in Alberta must remain in doubt. 



XCV. MICROPALAMA Baird. 1858. 



233. Stilt Sandpiper. 



Micropalama himantopus (Bonap.) Baird. 1858. 

 Not common at Cow Head, Newfoundland. One specimen killed 

 in September, 1867. (Reeks.) Not rare in New Brunswick, but on 

 account of its rapid migration it is not often noticed. (Chamberlain.) 

 Fort Churchill, Hudson bay. (Wright.) A male bird was shot on 

 the mud beside a pool on the tundra about 50 miles north of York 



