384 
RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER. 
whistle, not unlike that given by Peeps. They feed upon small mollusks which they pick 
off the rocks, when they are left exposed by the falling tide. On one or two occasions, I 
have seen specimens flying along the hill sides near the ocean but it is rare to find them 
even thus far from the waves. One or two cases are on record of their occurrence in the 
interior but they are so decidedly maritime that such instances are quite exceptional. I 
also find that there is a specimen in the Smithsonian Institution, which was taken on Key 
Biscayne, Florida, but this is quite beyond their usual range. The Purple Sandpipers 
depart northward in early spring. 
THING-A ALPINA. 
Red-backed Sandpiper. 
Tringa Alpina Linn., Syst., Nat., 1; 1766, 249. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Cij. Form, slender. Size, medium. Bill, slender, longer than head, slightly curved and widened at tip. Out¬ 
er marginal indentations, twice as deep as inner. Toes, without basal membrane. Tongue, long, thin, and slender, narrow¬ 
ing gradually to tip which is pointed. 
Color. Adult in summer. Above, dark-brown, each feather, excepting primaries, broadly edged with bright rufous. 
Base of secondaries, edges of inner primaries, and tips of greater wing coverts, white. Tail, excepting middle pair of feath¬ 
ers which are dark-brown, ashy. Middle of belly, black. Remainder of under parts, white, finely streaked on sides of 
head, on neck, across breast, and on sides with dark-brown. 
Adult in winter. Uniform yellowish-ash above, with the feathers slightly mettled with dark-brown. White, beneath, 
tinged across breast and on sides with ashy, and these parts are very finely streaked with dark-brown. 
Young. Similar to the winter adult, but some of the feathers above are slightly edged with rufous. Bill and feet, 
black, and iris, brown, in all stages. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Readdy known by the long, curved bill and black patch beneath, in summer; and at other seasons by the uniform ashy 
colors as described. Distributed in summer, throughout the Arctic Regions; wintering from Maryland, southward. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Average measurements of specimens from Eastern America. Length, 8'32; stretch, 15-25; wing, 4'80; tail, 215; bill, 
l - 35; tarsus, 100. Longest specimen, 8'75; greatest extent of wing, 15'75; longest wing, 5'00; tail, 2‘30; bill, P50; tarsus, 
105. Shortest specimen, 8 - 00; smallest extent of wing, 14"50; shortest wing, 4"75; tail, 2'00; bill, -90; tarsus, -95. 
DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 
Eggs , placed on the ground in a depression of the soil, on a little grass. They are from two to four in number, decid¬ 
edly pyriform in shape, varying from greenish to yellowish-ash in color, spotted, blotched, and dotted irregularly and thick¬ 
ly, with reddish-brown of varying shades, and more sparcely with umber. Dimensions from -95x J -30 to l'OO x 1’35. 
HABITS. 
When the'first cold blasts come sweeping down from the North, driving great waves 
of southward flying shore birds before them; when the honk of the Wild Geese is heard, and 
the sand spits are whitened with Gulls, the little Red-backed Sandpipers, or Dunlins, ap¬ 
pear. Late as they are, they do not seem to be in any hurry but linger about the sandy 
shores of Massachusetts, from early October until late in November, indeed, the first snow 
often finds them here. I found them very common on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay, 
on the second of November, 1878, and from this point, south, as far as Indian River, Flor¬ 
ida, they were abundant but always appeared to prefer the sandy beaches to the muddy flats. 
At this season, the birds were all in gray attire but I found them in the bright summer 
plumage at Dummett’s, late in May, at which time, they were preparing to migrate north¬ 
ward. Occasionally stragglers of this and other species of shore birds which breed in the 
far North, will remain in Massachusetts during summer. 
