Sept., 1921 A TWELVEMONTH WITH THE SHOREBIRDS 153 
waves, driving dead down wind and giving the boat a wide berth. It was more 
than difficult to get them even for a moment in the field of the binoculars, as 
one had to hang on to a stay with one hand and use the glasses with the other. 
Also the birds flew so low that they were only visible as they topped a wave; 
but as far as one could see there was the flash of their white undersurfaces far 
out to sea. Western Sandpipers, all adults, constituted the bulk of this huge 
movement. The only other species thoroughly identified were Sanderlings 
and Northern Phalaropes, although once I saw what I took to be about three 
hundred Red-backed Sandpipers or Dunlins. 
Here was a great migration of shorebirds travelling with a beam wind 
down the coast, which, as the wind freshened, had turned down wind through 
Dixon Entrance to get in the lee of the Queen Charlotte group to pass south 
through Hecate Strait. We got our anchor up with some difficulty in the mid- 
dle of the afternoon and as we headed back for Masset we saw the last of the 
migration. It would be hard to estimate the thousands of shorebirds that had 
passed and were still passing, for the wind continued for three days; yet along 
the shore and on the tide flats not a single bird of all this host could be seen. 
Two days afterwards six Western Sandpipers were seen on the shore, the 
enly ones seen until the 8th of July when twenty-five Westernsand two Least 
Sandpipers arrived, and except an odd bird of these two species the only other 
migratory waders seen during the month were a few Black Turnstones and 
Black-belhed Plovers which arrived about the middle of the month. Like the 
Sandpipers all were summer-plumaged adults. 
August brought some movement; two Turnstones (interpres) and a Wan- 
dering Tattler arrived on the 2nd, together with about 350 Western Sandpipers, 
among them seven young birds, the first young of any migratory wader to 
date. Sandpipers and Northern Phalaropes were seen on the 6th, all adults, 
and the first juvenile Least Sandpiper on the 8th. The next arrivals were Pee- 
toral and Baird Sandpipers on the 10th, a few birds of each, and all juveniles. 
| have never seen an adult Baird Sandpiper in over 30 years observation of 
the fall migrations. 
On the same date I took the only Golden Plover taken this year, an adult 
female retaining only a few of the black feathers of the under parts. This is 
an undoubted Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis dominicus fulvus); the whole 
upper surface is broadly margined with bright yellow; cheeks, throat and chest 
suffused with paler yellow, with an ochre tinge; measurements—wing, 177; 
tail, 61; tarsus, 43. 
The first returning Hudsonian Curlew was seen August 12, a single adult; 
and the same day brought four Turnstones, interpres, adults, and a very large 
flock of Sanderlings, with not a single young bird in the flock. On the 13th a 
few Semipalmated Sandpipers arrived, all juveniles (one was taken to ensure 
identification). I was pretty sure I saw a single bird of this species on the 
31st of July, but could not take it without killing a number of Western Sand- 
pipers at the same shot, and so it was allowed to go as I was confident that I 
would see the species again. During the balance of August this species was fre- 
quently seen, usually in company with Sanderlings or Semipalmated Plovers 
on the outer sea-beach and not on the tide flats. It never became common as 
it does in the interior of the Province and at Sumas near the coast; so the main 
inigration line of the species must be farther east. 
August 22 saw a large influx of shorebirds: Sanderlings (all adults ex- 
