Snipe, Sandpipers, etc. 



The Western Semipalmated Sandpiper (Ereunetes occideni- 

 alis), the representative of the preceding species west of the Mis- 

 sissippi, differs from it in having the plumage of its upper parts 

 more distinctly chestnut red, the breast more heavily streaked, and 

 the bill a trifle longer; but neither species differs perceptibly in 

 habits from the least sandpiper, and neither one is larger than an 

 English sparrow. 



Red-backed Sandpiper 



(Tringa alpina pacifica) 



Called also: DUNLIN; BLACK-BELLIED SANDPIPER; BLACK 

 BREAST; PURRE; FALL OR WINTER SNIPE; LEAD- 

 BACK; BRANT SNIPE; STIB; OX-BIRD 



Length — 8 to 9 inches. 



Male and Female — hi summer: Chestnut red streaked with black 

 above, many feathers tipped with white; lower back and 

 upper tail coverts blackish; wing coverts and tail feathers 

 brownish gray; breast whitish streaked with dusky; under 

 parts white, with a large black patch in the middle. (Summer 

 dress worn early and late.) In winter : Upper parts brown- 

 ish or ashy gray; under parts white or grayish, sparingly 

 streaked; the sides sometimes spotted with black. Bill long, 

 black, and curved downward; legs and feet black. Imma- 

 ture birds have the blackish feathers of upper parts with 

 rounded tips of chestnut or buff; the breast washed with 

 buff and indistinctly streaked; white underneath, spotted 

 with black. 



Range — North America; nesting in the Arctic regions, wintering 

 from Florida southward. A few remain farther north in 

 sheltered marshes. Rare inland; common coastwise. 



Season — Transient visitor ; April, May; August to October. 



Never far from the sand bars and mud flats exposed at low 

 tide, or the salt water marshes back of the beaches, flocks of these 

 red-backed sandpipers, that are not always clad in their winter 

 feathers when they come to spend the autumn on our shores, 

 pursue the daily round of duties and pleasures common to their 

 tribe. It is not an easy matter, even to one well up in field 



217 



