LEAST SANDPIPEB 



379 



When foraging in companies Least Sandpipers utter faint peeps 

 in conversational undertone ; in flight the note is more emphatic and 

 varied : wheet, wheet, or wheet, wheet, wheet-whrr-terr-wheet, of plain- 

 tive quality. Lone individuals are more given to calling than members 

 in a flock. 



Least Sandpipers often occur as single indi- 

 viduals, but more generally in flocks of varying 

 sizes sometimes numbering several hundred indi- 

 viduals. They frequent with apparent impar- 

 tiality the sea-beach, tide flat, marshland and 

 river bar. Throughout most of the day, and 

 probably well into the night, they are active, at- 

 tentively gleaning food from the sand or mud 

 at the water's edge. When not persistently 

 hunted they are quite tame and will allow close 



approach. If the observer takes his position on ^^S- ^^- '^^^^^l 



. .,,., and top 01 loot or 



the shore and remains quiet tor a time, the birds Least Sandpiper. 



will usually feed along almost at his feet. When Natural size. 



at work probing for food the bill is rapidly Note absence of 



, ... „ , T , , any webbing between 



thrust m and out oi the sand or mud at the rate bases of front toes 



of three or four dabs per second for as many 



seconds; then it is raised entirely free of the 



surface, and the bird straightens up and moves 



a few steps to a new location, to continue its 



search in similar fashion. As the bill goes down 



the tail goes up, so that the bird appears to 



teeter up and down, the legs acting as fulcra. 



When on the ground the birds move with a rapid, 



direct run, never trotting as do some of the 



plovers. Occasionally an individual will be seen 



to raise its wings vertically above the body and 



hold them there for a few seconds before fold- t;,. „„ „ 



Fig. 70. Tarsus 



ing them into place again. Once, a bird was and top of foot of 



seen to do this as it made a deep probe in the ^^^estem Sandpiper. 



^ ^ Natural size. 

 mud and at the same time one leg was raised 



„ ,, , jj.iiji.1 J- Note partial webs 



from the ground and stretched backwards ; m between bases of 



(compare with fig. 

 70). 



this ease it seemed as though the wings were front toes (compare 

 raised for the purpose of balancing the body. 

 When frightened the birds take to flight suddenly, and look to be 

 traveling at their topmost speed almost immediately. Individuals 

 show more erratic movement in flight than do flocks. The latter pur- 

 sue a zigzag course, so that one sees flrst the brown backs and then a 

 flash of white from the under surfaces, and this often, depending upon 

 the background against which they are seen, causes the birds to 



