SANDERLING. 
RUDDY PLOVER. BEACH-BIRD. 
Calidris arenaria. 
Char. No hind toe ; bill somewhat similar to a Plover. In summer : 
above, mottled rufous and blackish brown, most of the feathers tipped 
with grayish white; head and neck pale chestnut spotted with brown; 
wing-coverts tipped with white; outer tail-feathers white; lower parts 
white. In winter the rufous tints are replaced by pearl gray, and the 
spring plumage displays a mixture of the two. In young birds the head, 
neck, and back are tinged with buff. Length about 8 inches. 
Nest. Under a bush or amid a tuft of weeds; a depression lined with 
dry grass. 
Eggs. 2-4; greenish buff or brownish olive, spotted chiefly around the 
larger end with brown ; 1.40 X 0.95. 
The Sanderlings, in accumulating flocks, arrive on the shores 
of Massachusetts from their remote northern breeding-places 
towards the close of August. They are seen also about the 
same time on the coast of New Jersey and still farther to the 
South, where they remain throughout the greater part of 
the winter, gleaning their subsistence exclusively along the 
immediate borders of the ocean, and are particularly attached 
to sandy flats and low, sterile, solitary coasts divested of vege- 
VOL. I. — 4 
