330 
LEAST SANDPIPER. 
TRINGA MINUTILLA. 
Least Sandpiper. 
Tringa minutilla Vieill., N'ouv. Diet., XXXIV; 1819, 452. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Ch. Form, slender. Size, very small. Tail, doubly emarginate. Tongue, long, thin, and slender, narrowing 
gradually to tip which is pointed. Bill, slender, not widened at tip. Outer marginal indentations, twice as deep as inner. 
Toes, without basal membrane. 
Color. Adult. Above, dark-brown, with the feathers, excepting primaries, bordered with yellowishjash, rufous, 
and white. Tail feathers, excepting middle pair which are dark-brown, ashy. Line from bill over eye and entire under 
parts, white, tinged on sides of head, across breast, and on sides with yellowish-ash, and these parts are finely streaked 
with dark-brown . 
Young. Similar to the adult but much more rufous above and lacks, in a great measure, the streakings below. Bill, 
black, iris, brown, legs, greenish-yellow, in all stages.. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Known by the small size, slender bill, greenish legs, and absence of basal toe membrane. Distributed, in summer, 
from Labrador, northward; wintering from the Carolinas, southward. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Average measurements of specimens from Eastern North America. Length, 6* 13; stretch, 12 - 08; wing, 363; tail, 162; 
bill, '85; tarsus, - 72. Longest specimen, 6*76; greatest extent of wing, 12‘17; longest wing, 3 80; tail, 1'85; bill, - 95; tar¬ 
sus, '80. Shortest specimen, 5 60; smallest extent of wing, 1100; shortest wing, 3 - 58; tail, 1*50; bill, '65; tarsus, ‘65. 
DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 
Eggs, placed on the ground in a slight depression of thesoil, on a little grass, etc., three or four in number, decided¬ 
ly pyriform in shape, varying from creamy to buff in color, spotted and blotched irregularly, and quite thickly, with brown 
of varying shades. Dimensions from - 70x ’90 to - 75x POO. 
HABITS. 
Least Sandpipers or Peeps of sportsmen are, perhaps, the best known of game birds, 
for they are the legitimate prey of every one, from the ragged urchin who chooses to en¬ 
danger his life by burning gunpowder in a dilapidated tube which was formerly a gun, to 
the city exquisite who, armed with costly breech loader, sallies out to make havoc among the 
Curlew and Plover but whose greatest actual achievement consists in knocking over a few 
Peeps as they sit by the pools on the marshes. In habits, these pretty little shore birds 
do not differ from the majority of the members of the genus. They are fond of the marsh¬ 
es and it is not uncommon to start solitary individuals or small flocks consisting of three 
or four specimens, from out the grass, when they will rise with a feeble cry and make 
their way swiftly, in an eccentric flight across the flats. They may also often be seen on 
the beaches in company with larger wading birds, and it is noticeable that the small species 
are seldom, if ever, molested by the larger. Thus I have frequently observed a number of 
Peeps running about among a flock of Sickle-billed Curlew, without the latter appearing 
to pay the slightest attention to the little birds, even when they passed directly beneath their 
long bills. In time of migration, these birds closely resemble the preceding species. 
TRINGA BAIRDI. 
Baird’s Sandpiper. 
Tringa Bairdi Scl., P. Z. S.; 1867, 332. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Cn. Form, slender. Size, rather small. Bill, slender, but little shorter than the head, and slightly widened at 
tip. Toes, without basal membrane. Tongue, long, thin, and slender, tapering toward tip which is pointed. Outer mar¬ 
ginal indentations, twice as deep as inner. 
