BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 1 65 



69. Helodromas solitarius (Wils.). 

 Solitary Sandpiper. 



Common transient visitor in spring and autumn. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



May 6, 1878, one ad. raalei taken, Cambridge, H. M. Spelman. 



May 12 — 23. 

 June 5, 1889, one ad. females taken. Fresh Pond Swamps, W. Brewster. 



July 7, 1889, one seen and heard. Pout Pond, W. Brewster. 



August 10 — September 30. 

 November 28, 1895, one seen. Mount Auburn, W. Robinson. 



The Solitary Sandpiper is one of the few waders that have not diminished 

 perceptibly in numbers within the past thirty years. It always occurs com- 

 monly, and often really abundantly, in both spring and autumn, visiting most of 

 our open fresh-water marshes and pond shores and also the margins of sluggish 

 brooks and small, isolated pools which are more or less shaded by trees or bushes. 

 In Nuttall's day " a pair, but oftener a single individual, .... usually frequented, 

 very familiarly, the small fish-pond in the Botanic Garden in Cambridge." ^ I 

 have seen as many as five or six birds at one time scattered along the margin of 

 a pool on the Stimpson farm near the head of Vassall Lane and I have known 

 others to appear about the artificial ponds in Mount Auburn, but during the 

 earlier as well as later years of my personal experience the species has been met 

 with oftenest and in the greatest numbers in the Fresh Pond Swamps and at 

 Rock Meadow. 



The June date, given above, relates to a specimen which I shot near Little 

 River. It appeared to be unable to fly, and on dissecting it I found that one of 

 its wings had been broken some time before and that the bones had reunited in 

 such a way as to render the wing practically viseless for flight, facts which suffi- 

 ciently accounted for the presence of the bird in this locality so very late in the 

 season. 



1 No. 828, collection of H. M. Spelman. 



2 No. 30,169, collection of William Brewster. 



' T. Nuttall, Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada. The Water 

 Birds, 1834, 160. 



