104 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



lowing the receding waves, wading in the shallow water, or 

 visiting bare mud flats to pick up its food. The birds run 

 rapidly over the sands, and if alarmed take wing and fly in 

 a compact flock over the surf, uttering shrill whistles. "At 

 high tide they resort to the higher parts of the beach or to 

 some exposed sandbar, where they rest and often sleep, with 

 the head thrust into the feathers of the back."-j- 



Food habits. — The food of the sanderling consists principal- 

 ly of small crustaceans, mollusks, marine worms, fly larvae, 

 and sometimes seeds. Audubon states that in the stomachs 

 of specimens shot while probing the soft sand he found slender 

 sea worms about an inch in length, together with minute shell- 

 fish and gravel. "At other times," he says, "when they were 

 seen following the receding waves, and wading up to the belly 

 in the returning waters, I found in them small shrimps and 

 other crustaceans."! 



MARBLED GODWIT : Limosa fedoa (Linnaeus) . 



State records. — The marbled godwit occurs as a rare and 

 irregular migrant. Dr. Avery records a specimen taken in 

 the spring of 1880 near Greensboro, and mentions having 

 seen only three of the birds.* Gutsell secured a single speci- 

 men on Dauphin Island, August 21, 1911. 



General habits. — The godwits somewhat resemble the cur- 

 lews in appearance but the bill is curved upward instead of 

 downward. While on its breeding grounds in the North this 

 species resorts to grassy plains in company with the long- 

 billed curlew and the Bartramian sandpiper, or upland plover, 

 but in winter it frequents the mud flats and sandbars along 

 the coast, in company with other species of shorebirds. 



[HUDSONIAN GODWIT: Limosa haemastiea (Linnaeus). 



This godwit is rarer than the marbled godwit, but as it is known to 

 occur both in spring and fall on the Louisiana coast, it may be expected 

 to occur also in Alabama.] 



tForbush, E. H., Game birds, wild-fowl, and shore birds, p. 293, 1912. 



iAndubon, J. J., Ornith. BioE., vol. 3, p. 231, 1835. 



•Avery, W. C, Amer. Field, vol. 21, p. 646, 1884 ; vol. 34, p. 584, 1890. 



