Lancaster, Mass.
1911.
May 21
[May 21, 1911]

  Clear and hot (88 [degrees]) with light southerly breeze.

Courship of Spotted Sandpipers

  During a visit which I made with John E. Thayer
this forenoon to the artificial pond where his ducks and
geese are kept in summer we saw three Spotted Sandpipers
engaged in courtship. One which was evidently a female
kept, for the most part, in advance of the other two which
were apparently males, "showing off". First one and then
the other would make a short, smooth, rather slow, gliding run
after & perhaps past the female. Just before starting the bird
usually (but not invariably) half opened its wings and inflated
its plumage (if not its body) to such an extent that it looked
as big as an Upland Plover. At the same time it threw back
its head and puffed out its chest which instantly seemed to
get white and sometimes to expand into a snow white patch
as large as a wild rose or larger. Sometimes it presented
the appearance just described during the entire run which