SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC.: SPOTTED SANDPIPER 265 
seen July 30 and August 25, 1913, near Koehler Junction (Kalmbach). Migration 
continues through August and the whole of September; one was seen at Lake Bur- 
ford on September 30, 1904 (Bailey); it was noted near Albuquerque, October 7, 
1900 (Birtwell), and was still present along the Gila River near the Arizona line, 
October 12, 1908 (Goldman). In the winter of 1915-16 it was noted on the Carls¬ 
bad Bird Reserve (Willett). 
In the spring migration the arrival of the first was noted at Carlisle April 30, 
1890 (Barrell), and at Pecos May 9, 1900 (Birtwell). [On May 7, 1920, two were 
noted at Grays Ranch, Animas Valley (Ligon). At Lake Burford in 1918, about 25 
were seen May 24, and they were fairly common until May 28, when they decreased 
in numbers (Wetmore).]—W. W, Cooke. 
Nest. —A depression in sandy or gravelly ground, on a wet meadow, in a tuft of 
grass, or under a low bush; sometimes unlined, at others sparsely lined with leaves 
and grass. Eggs: 4, creamy buff or white, superficial spots and blotches reddish or 
blackish brown, chiefly at the larger end; deeper markings lavender or pale gray. 
Food. —Almost exclusively aquatic and other insects and their larvae, including 
locusts and grasshoppers, occasionally even cabbage worms, cutworms, and other 
garden pests; and also small tadpoles and crawfish. 
General Habits. —It is interesting to hear from Mr. Alfred M. 
Bailey of our familiar Spotted Sandpiper being seen out in the open “on 
the moraine in front of the Muir Glacier,” and from Doctor Wetmore 
that in Porto Rico, where it is the commonest shore-bird most of the 
year, “it delights to penetrate the darkest depths of mangrove swamps/’ 
where movement alone betrays its presence (1927b, p. 364). In our 
southwest, a spring in an arid valley or a tank on top of a desert range 
is enough to detain the little bowing, teetering Tip-up on its migration, 
while a stream bank or bit of bush-bordered beach affords it an accept¬ 
able summer home. Here its sweet peet-weet, peet-weet , peter-weet 
may be heard as, with convex wings and jerky strokes, it skims over the 
water, the white line along its wing naming it as it disappears around a 
bend. On the beaches one also hears a sweet perrr weet , perrr weet. 
And “during the mating season/’ Mr. Eaton writes, “the males strut 
about before the female, swelling up the breast in a manner somewhat 
suggestive of the Pectoral Sandpiper, until they finally burst forth 
into the shrill pipe which is the more familiar accompaniment of their 
lark-like flights, when they rise several feet in the air and at the close 
of the song drop into the meadow again” (1909, pp. 336-337). 
A nest with eggs may be found one day, and in their place the 
next, a family of tittle shadowy forms that vanish before the eyes. 
The old birds are soon ready for the second stage in their rapid, intensive 
lives, by the middle of August having doffed their worn nuptial plumes 
and being arrayed in beautiful fresh winter plumage, in fine feathers 
for their long southward journey 
In Peru, where Doctor Murphy found “the quiet shoreline ... a 
favorite winter haven for migrant snipes, plovers, and curlew from 
