36 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



GENUS TK.INGA. LINNAEUS. 

 242. Tringa minutilla YIEILL. 



Least Sandpiper. 



DESCRIPTION. 



The smallest of all known species of this group found in North America ; bill 

 about as long as the head, slightly curved towards the end, which is very slightly 

 expanded ; grooves in both mandibles to near the tip ; wing long ; tertiaries nearly 

 as long as the primaries ; tail short ; middle feathers longest ; outer feathers fre- 

 quently longer than the intermediate ; legs long ; lower third of the tibia naked ; 

 toes long, slender, margined, and flattened beneath ; hind toe small ; upper parts 

 with nearly every feather having a large central spot of brownish- black, and widely 

 margined with ashy and bright brownish-red ; rump and middle of the upper tail 

 coverts black ; outer coverts white, spotted with black ; stripe over the eye, throat, 

 and breast, pale ashy-white, with numerous small longitudinal spots of ashy-brown ; 

 abdomen and under tail coverts white; quills dark-brown, with the shafts of the 

 primaries white ; tertiaries edged with reddish ; middle feathers of the tail brownish- 

 black ; outer feathers light ashy-white ; under surface of wing light brownish-ashy, 

 with a large spot of white near the shoulder ; axillary feathers white ; bill black ; 

 tarsus brownish-green ; iris brown. 



Total length, from tip of bill to end of tail, about 5^ to 6 inches ; extent, about 1U 

 inches ; wing, 3| to 3f ; tail If ; bill to gape, f ; tarsus, inch. 



Hob. The whole of North and South America, breeding north of the United 

 States. Accidental in Europe. 



This, the smallest of our Sandpipers, occurs in Pennsylvania only 

 as a transitory visitor in the spring and fall migrations. According 

 to my experience, it is rare in spring, but quite frequently found in 

 the autumn, at which time it is often seen in company with other spe- 

 cies of its family. Sometimes these birds are found about our rivers 

 and ponds in good sized flocks. Near West Chester, about six years 

 ago, in the latter part of August, an acquaintance of mine found a 

 flock of probably one hundred feeding on the muddy bottom of a mill- 

 dam from which the water had been allowed to escape. 



FOOD. 



In my notes I find that no records appear of food-materials of these 

 birds, although I have obtained several in Pennsylvania and killed 

 many along the Atlantic coast and elsewhere. Nuttall tells us that 

 " for the discovery of their food their flexible and sensitive awl-like 

 bills are probed into 1he mire, marshy soil, or wet sand, in the manner 

 of the Snipe and Woodcock, and in this way they discover and rout 

 from their hidden retreats the larvae and soft worms which form a 

 principal part of their fare. At other times they also give chase to 

 insects, and pursue their calling with amusing alacrity." 



