426 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



During the first week of our stay there were not less than ten birds of 

 this species, well distributed, which quavered and teetered, or fled, as often 

 as we approached the surf line. But their numbers had dwindled to two by- 

 June 1st. 



Contrary to earlier statements these Tattlers do spend a considerable por- 

 tion of their time upon the higher ground. The tiny boulder-strewn meadow 

 surrounding my earlier camp (just east of Franeonia beach) was a favorite 

 resting place for them, and I am inclined to think the birds spent the night 

 there, for some were invariably startled upon my first appearance mornings. 



Having a common affection for the tide reefs, Wandering Tattlers are not 

 infrequently found in loose association with Black Turnstones; but when put 

 to flight they pay no attention whatever to the fortunes of their chance ship- 

 mates, nor to others of their own kind. 



Torrey (1913, pp. 132, 133), after observations on Wandering 

 Tattlers near Monterey, wrote: 



. . . One of them stood directly before me on the top of a rock, preening 

 its feathers, ... a sandpiper, with something of the look and action of both 

 the spotted and the solitary. . . . Sometimes it nodded in the manner of a 

 plover; oftener it teetered like a spotted sandpiper; while its legs were of a 

 color almost lively enough — ^but shading too much to olive — for the bird that 

 we know as " yellowlegs. " 



A long while it posed there, much of the time on one leg. . . . Then it 

 flew a short distance . . . [and] went down close to the surf, where the rocks 

 were thickly matted with seaweeds, and began feeding, jumping into the air 

 at short intervals, as a higher wave than common threatened to carry it away. 

 Once it caught a fish, or other creature, of considerable size, and seemed not 

 a little excited, beating its prize violently against the rock again and again, 

 and finally swallowing it with difS^culty, holding its bill open for some time 

 in the operation. 



The evidence which is available concerning the nesting of the 

 Wandering Tattler consists solely of young birds which have been 

 found with the natal down still clinging to them, and of observations of 

 the behavior of adult birds on their presumed breeding grounds. A 

 notable thing is that this preeminently maritime bird forsakes the 

 seashore at nesting time and repairs to remote mountainous localities 

 inland. Adults observed by Charles Sheldon in the vicinity of Mount 

 McKinley, Alaska, flew about solicitously on the approach of the 

 hunters, and at intervals lit in nearby willow trees just as do Yellow- 

 legs or Willets when intruders approach their nests (Osgood, 1907, 

 p. 340). In the high mountains of east-central Yukon Territory, 

 Canada, September 5, 1904, Osgood (1909, p. 86) found a partly 

 grown Tattler, with down still attached to the feathers of its neck. 

 "It seemed strangely out of place, busily engaged as it was, running 

 hither and thither over the small patches of gravel and stones along 

 the rushing mountain stream. ' ' Other individuals were seen. Joseph 

 Dixon (in Grinnell, 1910, p. 377) secured an adult Tattler July 23, 



