Recent Occurrence of Baird’s S ANDvn?ER(Tritiga bairdi) in Maine. 
— So far as,I am aware, we have but four recorded instances * of the cap¬ 
ture of this Sandpiper in New England, but the following facts will seem 
to indicate that in certain localities, at least, it may be something more 
than a mere accidental visitor. On the evening of Sept. 4, 1880, while 
returning from a trip up Lake Umbagog (Oxford Co., Maine), and just as 
we were entering the mouth of Cambridge River, the guide called my 
attention to a flock of small Waders sitting on a mud-flat. I made out two 
of the number to be Ring-necked Plovers, but in the fading light it was 
difficult to distinguish colors, and as the remaining six looked unfamiliar 
I picked out one that stood a little apart and shot it. The others disap¬ 
peared in the gloom and I picked up a specimen of Tringa bairdi. Early 
the next morning I again visited the spot but there were only six Ring- 
necks on the flat. On a neighboring mud-bar, however, I shortly found 
two Baird’s Sandpipers feeding in company with an Ereunetes and all 
three were quickly secured. The Baird’s Sandpipers proved to be a male 
and female, both birds of the year. They were so fat that their skins 
were preserved with the greatest difficulty. Whether they represented 
a part of the flock seen the evening before can of course only be a 
matter of conjecture. I have, however, good reasons for suspecting that 
the Baird’s Sandpiper regularly occurs at Umbagog in small numbers 
during the autumnal migration. In view of its known distribution in the 
West it would be more likely to be found on interior ponds and marshes 
than along our sea-coast, where it is apparently a very rare species. 
The specimens above mentioned were very tame and I watched them 
for some time before disturbing them. Their motions were slow and 
sedate and their attitudes crouching. They kept up a low conversational 
twitter while feeding, and when flushed, flew in that swift, erratic way 
characteristic of most of the smaller Waders. The peculiar coloring of 
the upper parts gave them a striped appearance which should serve to 
distinguish them from any other eastern Sandpiper except Tryngites ru- 
fescens — William Brewster, Cambridge , Mass. 
Bull, N.Q.Q. ©,Jan,, J 881 , p, bO (, / ■ 
* Long Island Boston Harbor, Aug. 27, 1870. Brewster. Am. Nat., VI May rSya 
>6.—Lake Umbaaoa. Unton Mains _ n . - ' I8 7 2 , 
■iutt. Orn. Club, I, 
Bull. Nutt. Orn. 
Orn. Club, III, July, 1878, 140. 
", Bull. Nutt. 
