Sept., 1921 A TWELVEMONTH WITH THE SHOREBIRDS 155 
any Sandpipers along the suitable beaches. My companion, Mr. C. deB. Green, 
heard the note of a Greater Yellowlegs high up in the air; he whistled it down 
and instantly a Faleon struck at it and missed. Away went the Sandpiper 
only to return to the alluring whistle. Again the Falcon, a young and inex- 
perienced bird, struck and missed, and then the Yellowlegs left that unhealthy 
spot for good. Black Oystercatchers, however, seemed to be immune, rearing 
their young right under the Falcons’ nests, unmolested. 
Another notable feature of the fall migration is the absence of the Red- 
backed Sandpiper until about the middle of October, when large flocks of 
young birds in winter plumage arrive; yet there are numbers of records for 
September in California, far to the south. It looks as if the adults skipped 
British Columbia on the southward journey. This dual migration of adults and 
young is very remarkable and is not peculiar to any particular species. In the 
case of the Western Sandpiper the flight-line of the adults is evidently more 
coastwise or even out to sea than that of the young. Considering the enormous 
number of adults seen on Graham Island, the young were notably scarce: 
while at Sumas Lake only 60 miles from the coast I have never seen an adult 
in the fall migration although the young are very abundant. 
December found me in Florida where I expected to make the acquaintance 
of a good many shorebirds that I had,not met before. In this I was somewhat 
disappointed. At Jupiter, on the “west coast of the state, the same species were 
wintering that I knew so well on the Pacific side of the eontinent—Black-bei- 
hed, Killdeer, and Semipalmated Plovers, Least and Spotted Sandpipers and 
Sanderlings. Except the last, all were represented by one or two individuals 
only, and these stuck to one locality, being noted almost every day throughout 
January and February. At Sewall Point, St. Lucie Inlet, there were good 
feeding grounds and here on February 7, a good number of waders were seen, 
among them two pairs of Oystercatchers, large flocks of Red-backed and Semi- 
palmated Sandpipers and a few Knots. Pectoral Sandpipers and Lesser Yel- 
lowlegs were seen March 3, but the first birds that looked like migrants were 
a pair of Wilson Plover that arrived at Jupiter on March 24. And shortly 
afterwards I myself migrated to the North. 
Four Least Sandpipers taken at Jupiter on March 5 are interesting in the 
fact that two are adults and two young birds—all in the gray winter plumage ; 
but while that of the adults is much worn, the young are in fresh feather. On 
my way home via Texas, California and Oregon I was struck with the abund- 
ance of the Hudsonian Curlew at all suitable points; and the wave of these 
birds that reached Puget Sound a few weeks later showed that here at any 
rate was a conspicuous shorebird that is more than holding its own. 
This ended my twelvemonth or more with the shorebirds, during which 
time I had the opportunity cf meeting with just thirty species of these most 
interesting birds. 
A note on the Surfbird, although not part of my last year’s observations, 1s 
worth recording here. Mr. C. deB. Green sent me seven of these birds which he 
took on Porcher Island, off the mouth of the Skeena River, July 12 of this year. 
Five of these were females and two males; all were in rather patchy summer 
plumage, a good deal of the former winter plumage showing on the chest. This 
made me take them for immature and non-breeding birds. But ail, and espe- 
cially the females, show the double incubating patches common to the Limico- 
Jae, and had only recently been sitting on eggs. Of course the date is nothing 
