Spotted Sandpiper 127 
primaries dusky; secondaries and their coverts white tipped, both 
the former with white bars; lateral tail-feathers with white; stripe 
over the eye and under-parts white, the latter with large rounded dusky 
spots; axillaries and under wing-coverts white with a brown bar across 
the latter; iris dark brown, bill waxy-yellow, black at the tip and 
along the culmen, legs olive-grey. Length 6-75; wing 4-1; tail 2-0; 
culmen -95; tarsus -90. 
The male is slightly smaller, and the black spots not so numerous ; 
in winter the spots are absent and the breast is washed with grey, and. 
the back is less glossy. 
Distribution.—Breeding from Alaska and Labrador south over 
the greater portion of the United States; wintering in the southern 
United States and south to Brazil. 
In Colorado the Spotted Sandpiper, with the exception of the Killdeer 
Plover, is the commonest wader; it ranges from the plains quite to 
the timber line, wherever there is a small pool or stream suitable to its 
wants, and nests everywhere though perhaps most abundantly at tho 
higher elevations. It arrives from the south at the end of April or the 
first week in May and leaves again in September, though some remain 
a good deal later into the cold weather. Breeding records are: Boulder 
co. 10,000 to 11,000 feet (Gale), Barr (Hersey & Rockwell), Brecken- 
ridge (Carter), Montgomery (Allen), Salida, arriving May 5th and 
breeding (Frey), Lily (Warren 08), Mesa co. (Rockwell), San Juan co. 
(Drew), La Plata co., up to 13,000 feet (Morrison). 
Habits.—This Sandpiper is often known as the “‘ Peet- 
weet”? from its note, or the “Teeter” or “ Titups”’ 
from its way of balancin,z itself on its legs and elevating 
and depressing its tail with clockwork regularity; it is 
rather solitary in its habits, and more than two are seldom 
found in one spot. Its flight is also rather striking, 
the wings appearing to be turned downwards all the 
time as it skims along the mud flat. 
The nest is placed on the ground in a slight depression 
near a lake or stream ; it consists only of a few blades 
of dry grass, slightly put together. The eggs, nearly 
always four in number, are rather pointed in shape and 
creamy or olive-drab in colour, spotted and blotched 
with brown and purplish; they average 1°30 x 1°0. 
Gale found fresh eggs between June 10th and 20th, 
