
part of the brood to the retreat and the male takes his part to the 
station, although they may be in opposite directions. If the need 
for additional feeding areas arises, the territorial organization 
is abandoned, and the parents with their broods may wander at random. 
Nesting 
I have examined 18 nests. Most of them were built of fine 
grasses but a few were of fine, dry sedges. The lining was usually 
of fine grass, but in two cases it was of alder leaves. They were 
superior to those of any other wader that I have examined and were 
sturdy and compact enough to be lifted from the sites. Signifi- 
cantly, if the nest is built in grass cover, as is usual in low- 
lying meadows, the grass stems of the previous year's growth are 
interwoven at the top to form a canopy like those above the nests 
of other marsh dwellers, such as rails. When the grass is inter- 
woven in this way, the bird enters the nest from the side. The 
interweaving may not be apparent to the casual observer, as it may 
be pulled apart when the bird is flushed. The canony is probably 
an important factor in the survival of the clutch when the nest is 
flooded. One nest was covered by 6-1/2 inches of water on May 29. 
The floating eggs were retained by the interwoven grass, and 36 
hours later, the water had subsided and the bird returned to the 
nest. The eggs were undamaged. 
The typical nest site of Wilson's gnipe in Newfoundland is in 
sphagnum moss. All 18 sites were in Sphagnum, except one which was 
in Cornus, in close proximity to the nest of a white-throated 
Sparrow. That nest, too, was built on a base of moss, but the moss 
was Politrichum. The nest was well hidden by second-growth birches 
and balsam fir. The eggs in it hatched on June 8 - one of the earli- 
est for the season. 
The low cover is usually grass, but occasionally sedge or rush. 
This may be scanty when the nest is built, but soon grows up to cover 
it. 
On the east coast, the woody cover, if there was any, was Myrica 
gale. In the Codroy Valley on the west coast, the woody cover was 
Alnus rugosa, except for the Cornus type nest, where the woody cover 
was small fir and birches. It may be significant that the last three 
nests found, on June 25, July 5, and August 8, respectively, were not 
in woody cover. However, the grass and sedges were so dense at that 
time that those three nests were the most completely hidden. 



Fifteen of the nests had clutches of four eggs; the other three 
nests had clutches of three. A nest found on May 2) had a clutch of 
three, and still had the same number on May 26. A nest with three 
eggs found on June 25 was apparently deserted, and the eggs were later 
destroyed by a cow. That, and one other nest destroyed by a horse, 
70 
