276 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
In the spring migration the species was found by Mearns, April 8-13, 1892, on 
the New Mexicc-Chihuahua line at Lake Palomas; and as late as May 5 in 1910 near 
Santa Rosa (Lantz and Piper); it is probably almost as common at this season as 
in the fall. Two specimens were taken at Lake La Jara, September 17, 1904, whose 
molt was nearly completed.—W. W. Cooke. 
Food. —Insects such as grasshoppers and mosquitoes, and minute aquatic ani¬ 
mals. 
General Habits. —The Least Sandpiper, Peep, or Green-legged 
Peep, as it is familiarly called—known by its size, its short bill, and 
narrowly streaked breast band—is the smallest and perhaps the most 
abundant species of shore-bird in North America, during migration 
being found not only on sea beach and salt marsh but fresh-water 
inland pond and wet meadow. At Carlsbad, where the Least Sandpiper 
was seen on the Bolles Ranch, it seemed tiny enough to be the young 
of some of the larger sandpipers. As we looked around on the busy 
throngs, the scale was an interesting one, beginning with the Least and 
going up through the Baird, the Solitary Sandpiper, the Lesser Yellow- 
legs, and the Greater Yellow-legs, to end with the Curlew. 
When feeding in flocks the little fellows give “faint peeps in con¬ 
versational undertone”; in flight the notes, as given by Grinnell, 
Bryant, and Storer, are “more emphatic and varied: wheet , wheet, or 
wheel wheet , wheel, wheet-whrr-terr-wheet, of plaintive quality” (1918, 
p. 379). Their loudest and most characteristic call note is given by 
Messrs. Nichols and Harper as a grating k-r-r-e-e-p. When danger is 
near, they say, the little bird squats, preferably with a lump of mud 
between him and the enemy! From Santa Barbara, Messrs. Bowles 
and Howell write, “One frequently finds single birds, or two or three 
together, pattering around the wet kelp on the ocean beach, often 
waiting to examine an intruder from under the very feet . 
before taking wing” (1912, p. 9). While often seen singly they are 
more generally found in flocks, sometimes numbering several hundreds. 
When not persecuted by hunters, Mr. Eaton has often had the trust¬ 
ful little fellows trot along in front of him, “gleaning or probing indus¬ 
triously for insects on every side.” When off guard in this way they 
are easy to photograph, and make attractive pictures. As he says, 
“some consider the little sand-peeps as legitimate game and shoot 
them by the dozens to be made into 'peep-pies/ but for my part, after 
associating with the little sandpipers, I am more content to eat chicken 
pies than to think how dozens of these harmless, interesting birds have 
been sacrificed for a single meal” (1909, p. 314). 
Those who have been fortunate enough to be with the Least Sand¬ 
piper on its breeding grounds have been impressed by its courtship 
song, and Mr. Robert T. Moore has recorded it in musical notation 
(1912, pp. 210-223). As Dr. Charles W. Townsend describes it, 
