34 
BIRDS OF DURHAM AND VICINITY. 
Tringa minutilla. Least Sandpiper. 242. 
This gentle little Sandpiper is abundant along the coast, and rather 
common inland, where there is plenty of mud, from the middle of 
August till well into September. The main flight comes about the 
twentieth of August. It may be found on sandy shores, bare marshes, 
or mud-flats, and is usually seen in company with Plovers or other 
sandpipers. 
Tringa alpina pacifica. Red-backed Saxdpipepv. 243a. 
The Red-backed Sandpiper is another spring and fall migrant, that 
is said to occur in tolerable abundance, coastwise, though in all the 
collections that have been made in this section, I have found but two 
specimens, — one in the possession of Mr. Turner of Portsmouth, and 
the other in Mr. George Wentv/orth's collection at Rollinsford. 
Ereunetes pusillus. Semipalmated Sandpiper. 246. 
This little Sandpiper is abundant, during the latter half of August 
and early in September at the beaches. I have found them very 
common on the flats at Hampton during the first week in September. 
Thev are here at the same time as the Least Sandpipers, and the two 
are often found together. The two species look much alike, and can 
hardlv be distinguished one from the other before they are shot, 
though this averages somewhat the larger, and is usually grayish 
above, while the Least Sandpiper is brown. The feet, however, are 
distinctive, the Semipalmated having webs between the bases of all 
of its front toes, while the other has no webs whatever. 
Ereunetes occidentalis. Western Sandpiper. 247. 
In my private collection I have a specimen of this sandpiper taken 
at Hampton October 10, 1899. ^^''^^ female that had been 
wounded and thereby delayed on her southward journey. This 
species, which is a bird of the western portion of this country, occa- 
sionally strays this way in the fall of the year, far more often than is 
realized, probably, as to the casual notice it would appear only as an 
ordinary Semipalmated Sandpiper which happened to possess an 
unusually long bill. When compared with a series of skins of the 
semipalmated bird its excess of bill is plainly apparent. It is simply 
a Semipalmated Sandpiper that has lived in the western and north- 
western regions for so many generations as to become slightly difl"er- 
entiated from the eastern form. 
