It is a regular fall migrant in the Pribilof Islands, between August 17 and November 9, where it associates in large flocks with the pectoral sandpiper on the seal-killing fields.
Doctor Stejneger (1885) writes:
Of this species I only obtained young specimens on Bering Island during the autumnal migration of 1882. From the middle of September and during the following three weeks they were observed both on the tundra near the great lake and on the rocky beach of the ocean searching for Gammarids. They were very shy and mostly single or in small families. Larger flocks were never seen.
From the Commander Islands the main flight continues on down the Asiatic coast, through Japan, China, and the Malay Archipelago, to New Zealand and Australia, where it spends the winter.
Winter.—W. B. Alexander writes to me that this is—
One of the commonest northern breeding birds which visits Australia. My earliest record of their arrival is August 31, 1925, at Cairns, North Queensland, and my latest record April 21, 1922, at Rockhampton, Queensland. From September to March they are to be found in small flocks throughout the coastal districts of Australia on the shores of estuaries and lakes and in fresh-water swamps. In October, 1922, I saw a flock of four on the open country near a dam on Alice Downs Station, near Blackall, central Queensland, a locality about 350 miles from the coast. Mr. D. W. Gaukrodger subsequently secured an excellent photograph of three of these birds at the same dam.
DISTRIBUTION
Range.—The sharp-tailed sandpiper breeds in the northeastern part of Asia—so far as known, in northeastern Siberia—wintering south to New Guinea, Tonga Islands, Australia, and New Zealand. Occurs in migration in Kamchatka, China, and Japan.
During fall migration it is of regular though rare occurrence in Alaska (Hotham Inlet, September 1, 1880; Port Clarence, September 9, 1880; Nome, September 2 to 16, 1910; St. Michael, September 16, 1877, August 29 and September 11, 1879, September 18, 21, and 24, 1899; Bethel, September 30 and October 1, 1914; St. Paul Island, August 17, 1897, September 7 and 13, 1910, September 14 and 20 and October 12, 1914; St. George Island, October 3, 1899; and Valdez, September 18, 1908).
Casual records.—The species is accidental in British Columbia (Massett, December 27, 1897, and Comox, October 4, 1903); Washington (mouth of the Nooksack River, September 2, 1892); England (Breydon, Norfolk, August, 1892, and Yarmouth, September, 1848 [?]); and the Hawaiian Islands (Laysan [specimen in museum at Bremen], a second specimen near Honolulu, a third specimen was collected on Maui [Henshaw], and Bartsch secured two specimens and saw others on Sand Island, November 8, 1907). One was taken near San Diego, Calif., on September 16, 1921.
PISOBIA MACULATA (Vieillot)
PECTORAL SANDPIPER
HABITS
This familiar sandpiper is well known as a migrant throughout most of North America, especially east of the Rocky Mountains, as it travels on its long journeys between the Arctic tundras, where it breeds, and its winter home in southern South America. It is more popular among gunners than the other small sandpipers, to whom it is known by several names. It is called "jack snipe" on account of its resemblance in appearance and habits to the Wilson snipe. It deserves the name, "grass bird," because it usually frequents grassy meadows. The name, "creaker," "creeker," or "Krieker," may have been derived from its reedy notes, from its haunts along the muddy banks of creeks, or from the German word Kriecher, on account of its crouching habits.
Spring.—The northward migration must start from Argentina in February, for it reaches Texas and Louisiana early in March, and I have seen it in Florida as early as March 14. On the other hand it has been taken at Mendoza, Argentina, as late as March 26. The main flight passes through the United States during March and April, but I have seen it in Texas as late as May 17. During May the migration is at its height in Canada and before the end of that month it reaches its summer home. William Rowan tells me that it is always very abundant in Alberta during May and that the males come alone at first, then mixed flocks, and finally only females. H. B. Conover writes to me that "these sandpipers seemed to arrive at Point Dall (Alaska) all at once. Up to May 20 none had been seen, but on the 21st they were found to be common all over the tundra. Immediately on arrival the males started their booming courtship." John Murdoch (1885) says that, at Point Barrow:
They arrive about the end of May or early in June, and frequent the small ponds and marshy portions of the tundra along the shore, sometimes associated with other small waders, especially with the buff-breasted sandpipers on the high banks of Nunava. Early in the season they are frequently in large-sized flocks feeding together around and in the Eskimo village at Cape Smythe, but later become thoroughly scattered all over the tundra.
Courtship.—The wonderful and curious courtship of the pectoral sandpiper has been well described by several writers. Dr. E. W. Nelson's (1887) pleasing and graphic account of it is well worth quoting in full; he writes:
The night of May 24 I lay wrapped in my blanket, and from the raised flap of the tent looked out over as dreary a cloud-covered landscape as can be imagined. The silence was unbroken save by the tinkle and clinking of the disintegrating ice in the river, and at intervals by the wild notes of some restless loon, which arose in a hoarse reverberating cry and died away in a strange gurgling sound. As my eyelids began to droop and the scene to become indistinct, suddenly a low, hollow, booming note struck my ear and sent my thoughts back to a spring morning in northern Illinois, and to the loud vibrating tones of the prairie chickens. Again the sound arose nearer and more distinct, and with an effort I brought myself back to the reality of my position and, resting upon one elbow, listened. A few seconds passed and again arose the note; a moment later and, gun in hand, I stood outside the tent. The open flat extended away on all sides, with apparently not a living creature near. Once again the note was repeated close by, and a glance revealed its author. Standing in the thin grasses 10 or 15 yards from me, with its throat inflated until it was as large as the rest of the bird, was a male A. maculata. The succeeding days afforded opportunity to observe the bird as it uttered its singular notes under a variety of situations and at various hours of the day or during the light Arctic night. The note is deep, hollow, and resonant, but at the same time liquid and musical, and may be represented by a repetition of the syllables too-u, too-u, too-u, too-u, too-u, too-u, too-u, too-u. Before the bird utters these notes it fills its esophagus with air to such an extent that the breast and throat is inflated to twice or more its natural size, and the great air sac thus formed gives the peculiar resonant quality to the note.
The skin of the throat and breast becomes very flabby and loose at this season, and its inner surface is covered with small globular masses of fat. When not inflated, the skin loaded with this extra weight and with a slightly serous suffusion which is present hangs down in a pendulous flap or fold exactly like a dewlap, about an inch and a half wide. The esophagus is very loose and becomes remarkably soft and distensible, but is easily ruptured in this state, as I found by dissection. In the plate accompanying this report the extent and character of this inflation, unique at least among American waders, is shown. The bird may frequently be seen running along the ground close to the female, its enormous sac inflated, and its head drawn back and the bill pointing directly forward, or, filled with spring-time vigor, the bird flits with slow but energetic wingstrokes close along the ground, its head raised high over the shoulders and the tail hanging almost directly down. As it thus flies it utters a succession of the hollow, booming notes, which have a strange ventriloquial quality. At times the male rises 20 or 30 yards in the air and inflating its throat glides down to the ground with its sac hanging below, as is shown in the accompanying plate. Again he crosses back and forth in front of the female, puffing his breast out and bowing from side to side, running here and there, as if intoxicated with passion. Whenever he pursues his love-making, his rather low but pervading note swells and dies in musical cadences, which form a striking part of the great bird chorus heard at this season in the north.
Mr. Conover (notes) adds the following:
When the male rises in the air to boom, in sailing to the ground he throws his wings up over his back, much in the same manner as tame pigeons when descending from a height; also a male which flew by with pouch extended was noticed to jerk his head up and down as he gave his call. The bill was partly open and he gave the appearance of swallowing air to inflate his throat. As it is the esophagus which is inflated and not the windpipe, this in all probability is what he does.
S. A. Buturlin (1907) gives a somewhat different account of it, as observed by him in Siberia, as follows:
One would every now and then stretch both wings right over its back, and afterwards commence a grotesque sort of dance, hopping alternately on each leg; another would inflate its gular pouch and run about, crouching down to the ground, or would fly up to about a hundred feet in the air, then inflate its pouch and descend slowly and obliquely to the ground on extended wings. All these performances were accompanied by a strange hollow sound, not very loud when near, but audible at some distance, even as far as 500 yards. These notes are very difficult to locate, and vary according to the distance. When near they are tremulous booming sounds something like the notes of a frog, and end in clear sounds like those caused by the bursting of water bubbles in a copper vessel.
Nesting.—Mr. Murdoch (1885) says:
The nest is always built in the grass, with a decided preference for high and dry localities like the banks of gulleys and streams. It was sometimes placed at the edge of a small pool, but always in grass and in a dry place, never in the black clay and moss, like the plover and buff-breasted sandpipers, or in the marsh, like the phalaropes. The nest was like that of the other waders, a depression in the ground lined with a little dry grass.
A set in my collection, taken by F. S. Hersey, near St. Michael, Alaska, was in a slight hollow on the open tundra with no concealment. And a set in the Herbert Massey collection, taken near Point Barrow by E. A. McIlhenny, came from "a slight hollow lined with dry grass, in the dry, gray moss of the tundra."
Herbert W. Brandt in his manuscript notes says:
The pectoral sandpiper usually chooses for its homesite the upland rolling tundra, but an occasional isolated pair was found on the dry grass lands of the tide flats. This species builds the most substantial of any of the shorebirds nests that we met with at Hooper Bay, for even after it was removed from the grassy cavity in which it was built the nest would often hold firmly together. The birds showed exceptional skill in the concealment of their homes and consequently they were very difficult to find for they chose a tract where the curly bunch grass grew abundantly and under its domed protection they constructed an excavation deep in the moss. Here a substantial nest is fashioned of grasses and tediously lined or rather filled with small crisp leaves of the low perennial plants that there, in a dwarf creeping form, are the only representatives of the great inland forests. The dimensions vary between the following extremes: Inside diameter 3 to 3½ inches; depth 13/4 to 2½ inches; and outside depth 3½ to 5 inches. We never observed other than the female carrying on the loving duties of incubation and seldom indeed was the male even in close attendance. The female is very difficult to approach on the nest because she invariably leaves it before the ornithologist draws near and consequently we spent many hours endeavoring to watch the shy bird return to her nest.
The behavior of parent birds about the nests seems to be variable. W. Sprague Brooks (1915) says:
On approaching the vicinity of the nest the bird would leave it quietly and walk slowly about feeding and showing no excitement whatever. This happened several times until I decided to watch the bird and see if by any chance she might have a nest. In a short time she walked to a bunch of grass a few feet from me and settled on the nest. Even while I was packing away the eggs she showed no concern. I had precisely the same experience with the other two nests.
On the other hand, Alfred M. Bailey (1926) writes:
On July 3 Hendee flushed a female from a set of four slightly incubated eggs. "The nest," he states, "was in a patch of marsh grass, similar to the location usually chosen by the phalaropes, except that the ground was not wet. The female fluttered away to a distance of about 30 feet and went through a remarkable performance in her attempt to decoy me from the nest. She crept about among the hummocks in a very unbirdlike fashion, uttering all the time a mouse-like squeaking."
Eggs.—Mr. Brandt in his manuscript notes has described the eggs so well that I can not do better than to quote him, as follows:
The eggs of the pectoral sandpiper are of particular interest because they are perhaps the most beautiful of the many handsome shore-bird eggs that are found in the Hooper Bay region. Their rich and contrasting colors, their bold splashed markings, and high luster make them veritable gems of oological perfection. In all nests that came under our observation four eggs constituted the complement, and these generally nestled points together amid the crisp leafy lining of their birthplace, standing most often at an obtuse angle to the horizontal. In outline they range from subpyriform to ovate pyriform. The exterior of the shell has a smooth, almost polished surface that reflects in many eggs a high luster. The ground color varies considerably from dull white to "cream buff" and even to "deep olive buff," but in all sets I have seen the ground color and markings follow the same shades and types in the same set of eggs. The surface markings are bold and individual, and appear as if they were daubed with a paint brush. These large rich spots are elongated and are placed parallel to the long axis of the egg, showing but little tendency to spiral. The heaviest markings are at the larger end, often merging into a large "chocolate" blotch, and in one case this rich blot of color covered more than a fourth of the egg. The color of the markings ranges from "walnut brown" and "sepia" to "chocolate" and "blackish brown," with "chocolate" the predominating shade. The underlying spots are prominent and numerous on some eggs, while on others they are almost wanting. They vary from "pearl gray" to "violet gray," with an occasional egg inclined to "Isabella color." In fact, each different clutch of eggs exhibits some individual interesting peculiarity.
My only set, taken for me by Mr. Hersey, would fit the above description very well, but it is not particularly handsome. The ground color is dull white or "pale olive buff," which is more or less evenly marked with small blotches and spots of "bister" and "bone brown." Mr. Murdoch (1885) says that they "may be distinguished from those of the buff-breasted sandpiper, which they closely resemble, by their warmer color." The measurements of 116 eggs, in the United States National Museum and in Mr. Brandt's collection, average 36.5 by 25 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 38.5 by 25, 38 by 27, 34 by 24.9, and 35.5 by 24.5 millimeters.
Young.—Mr. Conover writes to me as follows:
The incubation period seems to run from 21 to 23 days. A nest found May 31 with the complete set of four eggs was hatched on the morning of June 21. Another nest containing four eggs, from which the old bird was flushed, was found on June 2 and hatched on June 25. The first young were found on June 21. Contrary to their habits when there were only eggs in the nest, the mothers now showed great concern for their young. At one time Murie caught some newly hatched young, and holding his hand containing them extended on the ground, induced the old bird to come up and brood the chicks. She was so tame that he caught and banded her without difficulty. The male seems to take no part on the incubation or care of the young. He was often seen to join a hen driven from the nest, but only for purposes of courtship, as he would start booming immediately and chase her about. Before the eggs began to hatch, male birds seemed to disappear from the tundra. There was never more than one bird seen with the young. Thirty days seemed to be about the time necessary for the chicks to mature, as by July 20 fully fledged young were seen commonly about the tundra.
Mr. Buturlin (1907) says:
When I approached the breeding ground the old birds flew to meet me, one after another, and wheeled around uttering low tremulous notes of various kinds. These calls were evidently meant for the young and had different meanings. When the female is with them (and you must sit watching for an hour or more to observe this), the little ones are somewhat shy and take refuge under her. If you make the slightest movement she flies up, uttering the usual kirip, and kicks the young forwards, never backwards, until they tumble head over heels 5 or 6 inches away. There they lie as if dead, but with open eyes, and the mother flies around uttering a low tremulous kirip, kirip, trip, trrrrrr, evidently meaning "lie quite still." Then she alights near the young and runs about feigning lameness, while trying in every way to make you attempt to capture her. If, however, you keep quite quiet she becomes reassured, approaches near to where her young are, and utters with tender modulations, day-day-day, day-day-day, which means evidently "all right, come here." Then the chicks commence to chirp peep, peep, peeyp, and run to their mother. On one occasion I observed all this at a distance of about 10 paces, and once I was only about 3 paces from them. The downy young know their mother's call day-day-day so well that on one occasion a young bird, which I was taking home in my butterfly net, when it heard a female call quite close to me, climbed out of the net to rejoin her.
Mr. Brandt in his manuscript notes writes:
The potential energy stored up in the small richly colored eggs of this northern sandpiper is almost beyond comprehension. The downy chicks, as soon as they are out of the shell, show wonderful activity. When they are but 30 minutes old, their apparently slight legs carry them over the ground with great rapidity. They know at birth how to hide among the hummocks and vegetation so as to defy the sharpest eyes. In three weeks they are awing and six weeks later they are off on their long journey to the south, crossing mighty mountain ridges, great stretches of land and of sea.
According to W. H. Hudson (1920), the pectoral sandpiper arrives in the La Plata region, in southern South America, about the end of August, and he writes:
Among these first comers there are some young birds, so immature, with threads of yellow down still adhering to the feathers of the head, and altogether weak in appearance, that one can scarcely credit the fact that so soon after being hatched they have actually performed the stupendous journey from the northern extremity of the North American continent to the Buenos-Ayrean pampas.
Plumages.—The young pectoral in down is a beauty and is distinctively colored. The forehead, back to the eyes, lores, sides of the head and neck, and the breast are from "cinnamon buff" to "cream buff," paling to white or grayish white on the throat and belly. There is a broad, black, median stripe from the crown to the bill, a narrow, black loral stripe, which is joined by another, still narrower, malar stripe under the eye, extending to the auriculars; below the ear is a dark-brown spot. In the center of the crown is a black spot, surrounded by a circle of buffy white dots; around this the crown is a mixture of black and "burnt sienna," bordered with buffy white, except in front; and around this border, or along each side of it, is a narrow stripe of blackish brown above the buffy superciliary stripe. The nape is grizzly brown, buff, and whitish. The back, wings, and thighs are variegated with black, "chestnut," and "burnt sienna," and decorated with small dots of buffy white in an irregular pattern.
The juvenal plumage is much like that of the summer adult, except that the feathers of the mantle, scapulars, and the median and lesser wing coverts are edged with brighter colors, "tawny," "ochraceous-buff," and creamy white; and the breast is more buffy or yellowish. This plumage is apparently worn all through the fall and winter or until the first prenuptial molt in February and March, when the body plumage is renewed. At the first postnuptial molt, the next summer, the young bird becomes indistinguishable from the adult, having molted the entire plumage.
Adults have a partial prenuptial molt in the spring, from February to June, which involves the body plumage, except the back and rump and some of the scapulars, tertials, and wing coverts. The complete postnuptial molt of adults is much prolonged; the body molt begins in August, but the wings are not molted until the bird reaches its winter home, beginning in October and often lasting until February. Two adult females taken by Doctor Wetmore (1926) on September 9 in Paraguay "were in worn breeding plumage with no indication of molt." And one shot in Uruguay February 8 had renewed all but a few feathers of the entire plumage, while a male taken the same day was molting its primaries. There is very little difference between the summer and winter plumages; the feather edgings of the upper parts are more rufous in summer and more ashy in winter.
Food.—According to Preble and McAtee (1923), the contents of 21 well-filled gizzards of this species consisted principally of "flies (Diptera), 54.5 per cent; amphipods, 22.3 per cent; vegetable matter, chiefly algae, 10.5 per cent; beetles, 8 per cent; Hymenoptera, 2.1 per cent; and bugs (Hemiptera), 1.3 per cent." Other things eaten were mites, spiders, and caddis fly larvae and a few seeds of grass, lupine, and violet. P. L. Hatch (1892) says that "their food is principally crickets in spring, interlarded with various dry-land larvae, small beetles, and ground worms. In the fall the grasshoppers are first chosen, after which crickets and whatever other insects prevail at this season." Birds taken by B. S. Bowdish (1902) in Porto Rico had eaten fiddler crabs. Pectoral sandpipers feed mainly in grassy meadows, more or less dry, and their food is chiefly insects.
Behavior.—On the grassy salt meadows, where we usually find it, I have often been impressed with the resemblance of this sandpiper and the Wilson snipe, both in appearance and in behavior. It is often found in wisps or scattered flocks, the individuals widely separated and crouching in the grass. Often it flushes close at hand with a startling harsh cry and dashes hurriedly away with a zigzag flight. Sometimes it flutters away for only a short distance and drops quickly into the grass. Again it makes a long flight, circling high in the air and then pitches down suddenly in some distant part of the marsh, or perhaps near the starting point. Though erratic at first, the flight is swift and direct when well under way. They sometimes fly in flocks like other sandpipers, but more often they are flushed singly. They usually flock by themselves but are sometimes associated, purely fortuitously I believe, with other species that frequent similar feeding grounds, such as Wilson snipe, Baird, least or semipalmated sandpipers.
The pectoral sandpiper has another snipelike habit of standing motionless in the grass, relying on its concealing coloration, where its striped plumage renders it almost invisible, even in plain sight. It moves about slowly while feeding, probing in the mud with rapid strokes. Often it stands perfectly still with its head held high, watching an intruder; the dark markings on its neck end abruptly on the white breast, breaking up the outline and helping the bird to fade into the background. It is occasionally seen swimming across a narrow creek or channel.
Voice.—This is a rather noisy bird, especially so on its breeding ground, and its short, sharp flight notes are quite characteristic of the "creaker." Mr. Nichols contributes the following good description of them:
The notes of the pectoral sandpiper have a reedy character, intermediate in tone between the clearer calls of most shore birds and the hoarse cry of the Wilson's snipe. This is in keeping with its habits. Its characteristic flight note is a loud reedy kerr, resembling that of the semipalmated sandpiper (cherk) more closely than any other shore bird call, but recognizably heavier. Rarely in flight, the kerr varies into or is replaced by a near-whistled krru. On being flushed it often has hoarse, hurried cheeping notes, analogous with similar harsher notes of the Wilson's snipe. When in a flock of its own kind, alert and on the move, it has a short, snappy flocking note, a chorus of tcheps or chips. To my ear its flushing note is more or less a combination of flight note and flocking note, and it may reasonably be so. The flocking note communicates alertness to near-by members of a flock; the flight note is used more emphatically by birds separated from their companions or in active flight and disposed for companionship, whereas on being flushed the bird is signaling to possible companions; but as it has been feeding singly, concealed from such others as there may be by the grass, their distance is uncertain.
Field marks.—The pale-gray, almost white, tail with its dark, almost black, center and rump, is conspicuous in flight; a pale stripe in the wing is less noticeable. The snipelike colors of the upper parts, the dark, heavily streaked breast, contrasted sharply with the white under parts, and the short olive-yellow legs are good field marks when the bird is standing. The males are much larger than the females, which is unusual among shore birds.
Fall.—Regarding their departure from their breeding grounds, Murdoch (1885) says:
After the breeding season, they keep very quiet and retired, like the rest of the waders, and the adults appear to slip quietly away without collecting into flocks, as soon as the young are able to take care of themselves. As soon as the young have assumed the complete fall plumage, that is about the 10th of August, they gather in large flocks with the other young waders, especially about the small ponds on the high land below Cape Smythe, and stay for several days before they take their departure for the South. Stray birds remain as late as the first week of September.
On the New England coast the pectoral is both an early and a late migrant; a few adults sometimes appear in July and more come in August; but the main flight, mostly young birds, comes in September and October; they are often abundant in the latter month and I have seen them as late as October 31. When with us it is seldom seen on the sandy flats or beaches, but frequents the wet, fresh and salt meadows, preferably where the grass has been cut and which after a rain are covered with shallow pools of water. Here and along the margins of marshy creeks are its favorite feeding grounds. It does not decoy well and is no longer considered a game bird, but it has been popular with sportsmen for its gamy qualities and for the excellence of its flesh.
There is a marked southeastward trend in the fall migration of this species; from its breeding grounds in northern Alaska and northeastern Siberia its main flight seems to be towards the Atlantic coast of the United States; it is not abundant and rather irregular on the Pacific coast south of Alaska; it is common at times in the interior of Canada and usually abundant in New England. It occasionally occurs in enormous numbers in Bermuda and seems to be always rare in Florida; these facts would seem to indicate an ocean route to South America.
Winter.—The winter home of the pectoral sandpiper is in southern South America. Arthur H. Holland (1891) says that in the Argentine Republic, it is "usually found in marshy land with long water weeds abounding, frequenting the same spot for weeks together." Between September and March 26, Doctor Wetmore (1926) recorded it as "fairly common" at various places in Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. It evidently spends over half the year in its winter home and makes very rapid flights to and from its Arctic breeding grounds, where it makes a short visit of about two months.
DISTRIBUTION
Range.—Northeastern Siberia, and North and South America; accidental in the Hawaiian Islands and the British Isles.
Breeding range.—The pectoral sandpiper breeds mainly on the Arctic coasts of Alaska and Mackenzie. North to Siberia (Kolyma Delta); Alaska (Cape Lisburne, Cape Smythe, Point Barrow, Colville delta, Collinson Point, Barter Island, and Demarcation Point); Yukon (Herschel Island); northeastern Mackenzie (Cambridge Bay); and northeastern Manitoba (York Factory). East to northeastern Manitoba (York Factory). South to Manitoba (York Factory); Mackenzie (Clinton-Colden Lake and Lac de Gras); and Alaska (Tacotna Forks and Hooper Bay). West to Alaska (Hooper Bay, Fort Clarence, Point Hope, and Cape Lisburne); and northeastern Siberia (Kolyma Delta). It has also been reported in summer at Fort Anderson and Bernard Harbor, Mackenzie, and in northwestern Greenland (Cape Hatherton).
Summer occurrence outside the range above outlined are Keewatin (Cape Eskimo); Manitoba (Button Bay); southwestern Alaska (Nushagak); and northeastern Siberia (Cape Serdze, and Nijni Kolymsk).
Winter range.—South America. North to Ecuador (near Quito); Bolivia (Falls of the Madeira, San Luis, and Caiza); and Paraguay (Colonia Risso). East to Uruguay (Santa Elena); and Argentina (Buenos Aires, La Plata, Barracas, Chubut Valley, Port Desire, and Colonia Rouquand). South and west to Argentina (Colonia Rouquand). West also to Chile (Santiago, Huasco, Antofagasta, Atacama, and Tarapaca); Peru (Chorillos and Junin); and Ecuador (near Quito).
Spring migration.—Early dates of arrival are: Florida, Fort De Soto, February 22, and Orange Hammock, February 25; Alabama, Greensboro, March 20; South Carolina, Frogmore, March 20; North Carolina, Raleigh, March 21; District of Columbia, Washington, March 26; Pennsylvania, Carlisle, March 28, Beaver, April 1, and Harrisburg, April 7; New York, Canandaigua, April 14, Buffalo, April 18, Gaines, May 5, and Orient, May 7; Massachusetts, Thompson's Island, March 30, Monomoy Island, April 11, and Dennis, April 16; Maine, Scarboro, April 13; Quebec, Quebec, May 2; Louisiana, Lake Borgne, March 12, New Orleans, March 18, and Baton Rouge Parish, March 19; Mississippi, Biloxi, February 28; Arkansas, Glenwood, March 27; Kentucky, Bowling Green, April 29; Missouri, St. Louis, March 2, Warrenburg, March 11, Fayette, March 16, and Independence, March 18; Illinois, Englewood, March 9, Rantoul, March 14, Mount Carmel, March 15, Canton, March 26, and Chicago, March 29; Indiana, Bloomington, March 15, Terre Haute, March 17, Bicknell, March 18, and Greencastle, March 22; Ohio, Columbus, March 1, New Bremen, March 24, Columbus, March 25, Oberlin, March 25, Cincinnati, March 28, and Youngstown, March 31; Michigan, Ann Arbor, April 8, and Detroit, April 12; Ontario, Ottawa, April 27, and Fort Williams, May 10; Iowa, Keokuk, March 14, La Porte, March 25, Sigourney, March 26, and Des Moines, March 31; Wisconsin, Milwaukee, March 26, and Madison, March 31; Minnesota, Heron Lake, April 1, Hutchinson, April 5, and Wilder, April 6; Texas, Santa Maria, February 28, Houston, March 7, and Hidalgo, March 16; Oklahoma, Ponca City, March 31; Kansas, Topeka, March 29, and McPherson, April 9; Nebraska, Lincoln, March 10; South Dakota, Sioux Falls, April 10, and Forestburg, April 20; North Dakota, Charlson, April 27; Manitoba, Pilot Mound, May 1, Reaburn, May 9, and Margaret, May 9; Saskatchewan, Lake Johnston, May 9; Mackenzie, Sturgeon River, May 12, Fort Providence, May 14, Fort Simpson, May 16, and Fort Resolution, May 19; Colorado, Denver, April 21; Montana, Fergus County, April 22; Washington, Menlo, April 1; Yukon, Forty-mile, May 16, and Dawson, May 19; and Alaska, Bethel, May 4, St. Michael, May 15, Demarcation Point, May 23, Kowak River, May 27, and Point Barrow, May 30.
Late dates of spring departure are: Costa Rica, Buenos Aires de Terrabe, May 29, and San Jose, May 19; Florida, Fort De Soto, May 20; Pennsylvania, Doylestown, May 27; New Jersey, Elizabeth, May 30; New York, Canandaigua, May 24; Massachusetts, near Boston, June 3; Louisiana, New Orleans, May 20; Mississippi, Bay St. Louis, May 10; Arkansas, Arkansas City, May 15; Kentucky, Bowling Green, May 11; Missouri, Lake Taney Como, May 7, St. Louis, May 11, and Columbia, May 15; Illinois, Elgin, May 12, Addison, May 17, La Grange, May 17, Havana, May 24, and Chicago, June 18; Indiana, Greencastle, May 4, Lyons, May 6, Crawfordsville, May 8, and Bloomington, May 9; Ohio, Tiffin, May 15, Oberlin, May 20, Columbus, May 21, and Youngstown, May 24; Michigan, Detroit, May 13, Hillsdale, May 17, and Ann Arbor, May 19; Ontario, Ottawa, May 25; Iowa, Lake Okoboji, May 27, Emmetsburg, May 28, Sioux City, May 30, and Forest City, May 31; Wisconsin, Elkhorn, May 14, and Madison, May 19; Minnesota, Heron Lake, May 16, Minneapolis, May 18, Hutchinson, May 19, and Hallock, May 28; Texas, Sweetwater, May 8, Corpus Christi, May 11, and Decatur, May 19; Kansas, Fort Riley, May 24, and Onaga, May 24; Nebraska, Valentine, May 17, and Neligh, May 26; South Dakota, Vermilion, May 12, and Sioux Falls, June 11; North Dakota, Charlson, May 11; Manitoba, Winnipeg, May 24, and Shoal Lake, June 2; Montana, Big Sandy, May 18; and Washington, Fort Steilacoom, May 5.
Fall migration.—Early dates of fall arrivals are: British Columbia, Okanagan Landing, July 16; Washington, Tacoma, August 17; California, Redwood City, August 22; Montana, Sweetgrass Hills, August 11; Wyoming, Yellowstone Park, July 19; Colorado, Denver, July 28; Mackenzie, Fort Wrigley, July 19; Saskatchewan, Milk River, July 16, and Big Stick Lake, July 18; Manitoba, Moosejaw, July 7; North Dakota, Charlson, July 20; South Dakota, Forestburg, July 8, Huron, July 15; Nebraska, Valentine, August 8; Texas, Brownsville, August 2, Tivoli, August 8; Minnesota, Minneapolis, July 15, Lanesboro, July 18, and St. Vincent, July 24; Wisconsin, Madison, July 22, North Freedom, July 25, and Racine, July 30; Iowa, Marshalltown, July 8, and Wall Lake, July 23; Ontario, Toronto, July 14, and Todmorden, July 23; Michigan, Detroit, July 14, and Charity Islands, July 27; Ohio, Dayton, July 20, Bay Point, July 24, Painesville, July 25, and North Lima, July 27; Illinois, Chicago, July 2, and La Grange, July 27; Mississippi, Bay St. Louis, July 15, and Beauvoir, July 26; Nova Scotia, Digby, July 26; New Brunswick, Scotch Lake, August 9; Maine, Pittsfield, July 26; Massachusetts, Marthas Vineyard, July 11; New York, Syracuse, July 2, Orient, July 4, Rochester, July 10, and East Hampton, July 11; New Jersey, Elizabeth, July 14, and Camden, August 16; Pennsylvania, Beaver, August 6; District of Columbia, Washington, August 10; Virginia, Chincoteague, August 1; South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, July 21, and Frogmore, August 1; Alabama, Leighton, July 24; Florida, Fort De Soto, July 25, and Key West, July 26; Bermuda, Penistons Pond, August 3; Bahama Islands, Fortune Island, August 5; Porto Rico, Guayanilla, August 24; West Indies, Barbados, August 16, Guadeloupe, September 2, and St. Croix, September 14; Lower California, San Jose del Cabo, September 2; Guatemala, Duenas, September 2; Costa Rica, San Jose, September 7; and Colombia, Santa Marta, September 14.
Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska, St. George Island, October 3, Unalaska, October 5, St. Paul Island, October 8, and Nushagak, October 15; British Columbia, Comox, October 15, Chilliwak, October 19, and Okanagan Landing, November 5; Washington, Nisqually Flats, November 6, and Simiahmoo, November 1; Oregon, Cold Springs Bird Reserve, October 27; California, Oakland, October 8; Lower California, San Jose del Cabo, October 24; Costa Rica, La Estrella de Cartago, November 5; Montana, Flathead Lake, October 20, and Terry, October 21; Idaho, Deer Flat, November 1; Colorado, Barr, October 5; Mackenzie, Slave River, September 29, and Blackwater, October 7; Manitoba, Winnipeg, October 18, and Winnipeg, October 29; South Dakota Wall Lake, October 14, and Sioux Falls, November 5; Nebraska, Lincoln, November 4; Minnesota, Hallock, October 16, and St. Vincent, October 25; Wisconsin, Madison, October 11; Iowa, Marshalltown, November 18, and Keokuk, November 24; Ontario, London, October 16, Toronto, October 27, and Ottawa, November 5; Michigan, Hillsdale, October 6, Bay City, October 21, and Detroit, October 29; Ohio, Youngstown, November 5, Dayton, November 18, and Columbus, November 28; Indiana, Lafayette; October 5, and Bicknell, November 1; Illinois, Chicago, October 3, and Lawrenceville, November 13; Quebec, Montreal, November 1, Quebec, November 10, and Anticosti Island, November 12; Maine, Lewiston, October 13, and Pittsfield, November 10; Massachusetts, Lynn, October 28, Harvard, October 30, and Monomoy Island, November 1; New York, Long Beach, November 7, Keuka, November 12, and Branchport, November 23; New Jersey, Camden, November 8; Pennsylvania, Erie, October 31, and Carlisle, November 2; District of Columbia, Anacostia, November 1; North Carolina, Raleigh, November 15; Florida, Lake Jackson, November 22, and Palma Sola, November 29; and Bermuda, St. George, October 9.
Casual records.—The pectoral sandpiper has been taken twice in the Hawaiian Islands, Koahualu, August 6, 1900, and October 14, 1900; once at Hopedale, Labrador; and several times in Greenland, in summer and fall. Observed in Labrador, Rigolet, June 24 to July 8, 1882, and Davis Inlet, July 18, 1883. In Europe it has apparently been detected only in the British Isles, where there are several records from Scotland and Ireland and the southern counties of England.
Egg dates.—Alaska: 16 records, May 27 to July 3; 8 records, June 2 to 18. Arctic Canada: 3 records, June 10 to 30.
PISOBIA FUSCICOLLIS (Vieillot)
WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER
HABITS
The white-rumped, or Bonaparte, sandpiper is a great traveller; it breeds in a limited area on the Arctic coast of North America and winters in extreme southern South America.
Spring.—From its winter home in South America, this sandpiper makes an early start; Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1926) writes:
At Guamini, Buenos Aires, from March 3 to 8, white-rumped sandpipers were encountered in northward migration from a winter range in Patagonia. The species was fairly common on March 3 and increased greatly in abundance on the two days that followed. The northward journey was apparently as concerted as the movement that carried the birds southward, as on March 6 there was a noticeable decrease in their numbers, and by March 8, though the birds were still common, the bulk of individuals had passed. They arrived in flocks from the southward, often of several hundred individuals, that whirled in and circled back and forth along the lake shore to decoy to birds feeding on the strand or to rise again and continue swiftly northward. Those that paused kept up a busy search for food along the muddy beaches in or near shallow water, or in company with little parties of buff-breasted sandpipers on the drier alkaline flats back of the shore line. In early morning they were especially active and were in continual movement. Occasionally they worked out into comparatively deep water where in feeding it is necessary to immerse the head over the eyes nearly to the ear openings. When disturbed flocks rose with soft notes that resembled tseet tseet or tseup to circle to new feeding grounds on the lake shore.
The spring migration route is apparently northward along the Atlantic coast of South America and through the West Indies to the United States. Only a few migrate along our Atlantic coast, as the main flight is northward through the interior, during May and the first few days of June. Many reach their breeding grounds before the end of May.
Courtship.—Doctor Wetmore (1926) gives an attractive account of what seems to be a beginning of courtship in Argentina; he writes:
Occasional parties of males, animated by the approaching breeding season, broke into soft songs and called and twittered, often for several minutes, in a musical chorus in low tones that had so little carrying power that they merged in the strong wind, and it was some time before I succeeded in picking out the sweet individual songs tsep a tsep a tsep a or twee twee tee tee ty tee given as the head was bobbed rapidly up and down. Occasionally when the fall sunlight came warmly I sat in the mud and let little bands of white rumps work up around me until they were feeding and calling within a meter or so, eyeing me sharply for any cause of alarm. At such times their twittering choruses came sweetly and pleasantly, clearly audible above the lap of waves and the rush of the inevitable winds of the pampas. Between songs the search for food continued without cessation. At short intervals, activated by the warmth of the sun, they suddenly indulged in dozens of combats with their fellows, bloodless affrays, of bluff and retreat, where they lowered their heads and with open mouths ran at one another pugnaciously. The one attacked sidled quickly away or fluttered off for a short distance, save where two of equal temperament chanced to clash when first one and then the other threatened with raised wings in alternate advance and retreat until the fray was concluded to their mutual satisfaction. At such times the movements of these otherwise plain little birds were sprightly and vivacious to a degree. Their loquacity at this season was marked as it contrasted strikingly with their silence and quiet during the resting period of southern summer. Flocks frequently rose to perform intricate evolutions and then returned with a rush to sweep along the shore and join less ambitious comrades. As they passed the white rump flashed plainly, certain advertisement of the species. At times the chattering of these active flocks reminded me of the twittering of swallows.
J. Dewey Soper found this species quite common at various places on Baffin Island, and has sent me some very full notes on it, from which I quote as follows:
The species was encountered at Nettilling Lake, June 10, 1925, when a mated pair was flushed from a marshy upland near the Takuirbing River. The sexual organs in both were fully developed, the female being almost on the point of laying. By the 14th the species had become quite common. The males practised their vocal performance on the wing immediately upon arrival. They rise to a height of about 60 feet above the tundra and there they hover with rapidly beating wings giving utterance to their nuptial song in notes so weak that when a wind is blowing nothing may be heard of it even at comparatively close range. It is given in a very low tone and slow tempo; the notes are weak and inclined to be squeaky, with a weird dripping quality like the sound of water oozing and dropping in a small cavern. The species appears to flush silently.
Nesting.—Very little seems to be known and still less has been published about the nesting habits of the white-rumped sandpiper. In MacFarlane's notes I find brief records of seven nests found by his party on the barren grounds and Arctic coast of Canada, from 1862 to 1865. One nest was found on June 21, 1862, 50 miles east of Fort Anderson; the female and three eggs were taken; the nest consisted of a few leaves in a small hole in the ground near a small lake. Another found on June 29, 1863, on the barren grounds, is described as "a mere depression in the ground lined with a few decayed leaves"; the female and four eggs were taken. There is a set of four eggs in the Herbert Massey collection, taken with the parent bird by E. A. McIllhenny at Point Barrow, Alaska, on June 25, 1898; the nest is described as "a hollow in the moss on top of a ridge on the tundra, lined with dry grass and partly arched over." This is farther west than the species is supposed to breed, but there are several birds in the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences collected there in June, which are in full breeding plumage.
Mr. Soper found a number of nests near Nettilling Lake, Baffin Island, on which he has sent me the following notes:
A nest containing four eggs was found on a grassy hummock on the tundra bordering the lake on June 16. Many were subsequently found. The nest is merely a shallow depression on the crown of a tussock of grass and mosses a few inches above the surrounding mud and water of the tundra. It is sparingly lined with blades of old grass and dead leaves of the dwarf arctic willow. Some are lined exclusively with the dried, oval leaves of Salix herbacea. According to collecting data, both sexes arrive together, with the female almost, if not quite, ready for immediate reproduction, as evidenced by the condition of the ovaries. The nest of four eggs found on June 16 was but four days after the first observed arrivals of the species.
The female upon one's approach plays the familiar artifice of simulating a prostrated condition, limping and dragging herself along the ground in an effort to attract one's attention from the nest. In this they are bold and fearless; and when one sits beside the nest they will frequently run up to within a foot or less of the observer. In photographing nests from a distance of only a few feet, the female will often return to her eggs while one's head is under the dark cloth adjusting the focus. One was so devoted to her eggs that she would run up and peck at my fingers and run over my hand as I extended it toward the nest. This species, when one approaches the nest, usually leaves it when one is 20 to 25 yards distant and runs along the ground, either directly toward the intruder or a little to one side. Because of its remarkable similarity to the covering of the tundra at this time, this first movement often escapes one, and consequently when the bird is first observed fluttering along the ground one naturally imagines himself near the nest, when, in reality, it may be 20 or 30 yards away. This ruse is a clever one, and no doubt would often save the nest from violation. The nests are easily found by retiring and watching the female with the glasses. They usually return to the nest with little artifice or delay; in fact, often within two or three minutes. The above procedure is not an invariable practice, as one female I knew would flush directly from the nest to begin her tactics only when there was danger of the nest being actually trodden upon.
Eggs.—The four eggs usually laid by the white-rumped sandpiper are ovate pyriform in shape; all that I have seen are uniform in shape and have characteristic colors and markings. One of the two sets in the United States National Museum has a "deep olive buff" ground color, and the eggs are heavily blotched about the larger end, sparingly spotted elsewhere with "wood brown," "warm sepia," and "benzo brown," and with a few underlying spots of various shades of "brownish drab"; an egg from this set is well figured by Frank Poynting (1895). The other set differs from this one in having the ground color lighter, "olive buff," and the spots finer, more scrawly, and lighter in color; the underlying drab markings are also more numerous.
There is also a set of four eggs in the Thayer collection, taken with the parent bird by Alfred H. Anderson on Taylor Island, Victoria Land, July 7, 1919. These eggs are much like the egg figured by Mr. Poynting, except that in one or two of the eggs the ground color is more greenish.
One of the three sets taken by J. Dewey Soper on Baffin Island looks much like a miniature set of long-billed curlew's eggs. In three of the eggs the ground color is "mignonette green," covered with small spots, more thickly at the larger end, of "bister" and "snuff brown"; the other has a "deep lichen green" ground color and is irregularly blotched near the larger end, finely speckled elsewhere with "bister" and "brownish drab."
The measurements of 34 eggs average 33.7 by 24 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 36.1 by 23.6, 34.2 by 27.7, 31.5 by 23.5, and 35 by 22.8 millimeters.
Young.—Mr. Soper's notes on the young are as follows:
The first juveniles, about a day old, were seen and collected on July 11. They were exceedingly active, a good example of precocial young. These were ashy below, buffy above, with black markings, and the down over the lower back and rump tipped with small spots of white. This species is much more demonstrative and less artful in the concealment of young than Baird's sandpiper. The adults come within a few feet of the intruder, and by their action advertise much more clearly the position of the young. The parent birds keep up a continual fine twittering cry of alarm, the female louder and more pronounced. The male comes on the scene only at intervals with a mouse-like squeaking note. The young are adepts in the art of concealment, "freezing" flat to the ground with warning notes from the adults. They will lie in this fashion as though dead until actually picked up in the hand. When they realize the game is up they then become wild and frantically struggle to escape. When allowed to do so they will run rapidly away and either hide again or attempt to reach the mother bird, whose frantic cries come from but a few yards away.
A young white rump about two-thirds grown and almost on the point of flight was captured on August 1. Others seen a few days later on the shore of Kuksunittuk Bay were capable of short flights. As an experiment, I tried several times to keep individual young alive at my base tent on the Takuirbing River, but they invariably died within about 24 hours regardless of the best care.
Plumages.—The downy young white rumped is much like the downy young of other tundra nesting species of sandpipers. From the stilt sandpiper it can be distinguished by its much shorter legs and shorter and slenderer bill, from the Baird by its more buffy face and breast, these parts being pure white in bairdi, and from the least by paler and duller browns in the upper parts and by white, instead of buffy terminal tuft spots. The crown, back, rump, wings, and thighs are variegated or marbled with "Sanford's brown," or "tawny," and black, dotted, except on the front half of the crown, which is mainly bright brown, with whitish terminal tufts. The forehead, a broad superciliary stripe, the sides of the head, throat, and breast are pale buff or buffy white; the remaining under parts are grayish white. A median frontal stripe of black terminates in "tawny" toward the bill; there are extensive black areas on either side of the crown and on the occiput. The nape is grizzly, buff, gray and dusky.
In juvenal plumage the crown is sepia with "tawny" edgings; the back, rump, tertials, and scapulars are sepia, with "tawny" edges, and some of the feathers of the mantle and scapulars are also white tipped; the under parts are white, but the breast is suffused with light buff and narrowly streaked with dusky; the median and lesser wing coverts are broadly edged with light buff or whitish.
The postjuvenal molt of the body plumage usually occurs in September and October, mainly in the latter month, but sometimes not until November. The upper body plumage is not all molted, so that first winter birds can be distinguished by tawny or buffy edged feathers in the mantle and by the juvenal wing coverts. The next partial prenuptial molt apparently removes all traces of immaturity.
Adults have a prenuptial molt, beginning in March, of the under-body plumage, most of the upper-body plumage, sometimes the tail, and some of the wing coverts. But this is almost immediately preceded by the delayed molt of the remiges in January and February, so that it seems to be a nearly complete prenuptial molt, which is barely finished before the birds start on their long northward migration. The postnuptial molt of adults, beginning in August and often lasting into October, involves only the body plumage, the tail, and some scapulars, tertials, and wing coverts. The gray winter plumage, so different from the brightly colored spring plumage, is seldom seen in its completeness before the birds go south.
Food.—Very little seems to have been published on the food of the white-rumped sandpiper, but W. L. McAtee (1911) gives it credit for eating some injurious insects and worms, such as grasshoppers, the clover-root curculio, which is injurious to clover, and marine worms (Nereis), which prey on oysters.
Stuart T. Danforth (1925) says that four collected in Porto Rico—
had eaten 77.7 per cent of animal food and 22.3 per cent of vegetable matter. Fifty per cent of the animal matter consisted of bloodworms, 25 per cent of Planorbis snails, and 5 per cent of Corixa reticulata. The vegetable matter consisted entirely of seeds, of which those of Compositae formed 33.3 per cent, Sesban emerus 30 per cent, and Persicaria portoricensis 36.7 per cent. In addition to food, the stomachs contained mineral matter (coarse red sand) forming 32.5 per cent of the stomach contents.
Behavior.—Lucien M. Turner, who has had abundant opportunity to observe this species in Ungava, writes in his notes:
The flight of these birds is remarkably firm and swift, generally in an undulatory manner and swerving to the right or left often with the body inclined to one side, the wing nearly perpendicular, alternately presenting the upper and lower surface of the body. Just before alighting the wings are raised until the tips nearly touch over the back and for a moment held outstretched and then slowly folded. The bird is quite active while searching for food and seldom remains more than a few seconds in a spot, where it constantly picks here and there for the minute organisms which form its food. During this time all is activity and quite in contrast to the interval while the tide is high and the bird is on the high land resting and digesting its food. Here it is more sleepy and less easily disturbed. The eyesight of these sandpipers is certainly very acute, as they are able to detect the presence of a person at a long distance and give a twittering, snipey note, otherwise regardless of approaching danger. In all their doings the utmost harmony seems to prevail. The only object of their lives seems to be to gather food. No sooner does the water begin to ebb than a few of these birds will swish over some point of land with merry twittering, eagerly scanning the bank for the least appearance of mud now being exposed. By the time the tide has half ebbed myriads of these birds are sweeping back and forth along the river. As the water shallows over well known bars, and scarcely has the water shoaled enough to permit the birds to alight without swimming, than as many sandpipers as can collect on the place eagerly alight and begin probing the ooze for food. The lowering water is followed by the thronging birds to the last inch.
The flowing tide begins and the birds retreat carefully seizing every object of food that the rising water brings to the surface. Often they are so eager in their search that many birds are crowded into the deeper water and save themselves only by flight. This or that place is quickly covered over by the water and again the birds collect into larger flocks which now sway to the right or left, alternately, exposing their silvery white underparts which gleam in the sunshine like a stream of silver. The gray or brown of their backs relieving the color as the long stream of birds pass by. They partially halt their flight and become a compact flock, whereupon they separate into smaller flocks which, as the water gradually rises and covers their feeding grounds, now betake themselves to the higher lands of the banks above. Here, around the pools on the highlands, or among the grassy margins of the lakes, they collect to wash themselves and digest the food they have obtained from the salt-water mud.
As a person approaches one of these pools, in the latter part of August, little suspecting that anything will be found near them, these birds turn their backs, which so closely resemble the lichen covered granite as to render the birds indistinguishable. A nearer approach and they present their white breasts which afford a striking contrast with the surroundings. In a moment they run together and huddle into a compact flock before they take wing. I have, by firing at the proper moment, secured every individual composing a flock of over a dozen birds. If they fly they take to their wings with a sudden impulse and fly in a zigzag movement for a few yards then swerve to right or left continuing until another locality is reached, where they sit quietly until approached. This is repeated every tide and, as the birds are crepuscular also in their habits, their opportunities for becoming fat are nearly doubled. They acquire the fat in a short time. The thickness of the layer is often one-fourth of an inch and completely envelops the body. The least abrasion of the skin or a shot hole soon fills the surrounding parts with oil which has exuded from the wound, making the preparation of skins for specimens a very difficult matter. The flesh of these birds is peculiarly tender and richly flavored. At times I have gone out to shoot these birds for the table and with five discharges (of half an ounce of No. 12 shot) I secured on one occasion 82 birds. A heavy stick thrown in among them as they wade along the water's edge also knocks many of them over, for these birds seem so intent on procuring food that but little heed is given to the hunter.
William Brewster (1925) says:
Invariably among the tamest and most confiding of our so-called shore birds, they will usually permit one to approach, either on foot or in a boat, within 5 or 6 yards, while I have known a gun to be discharged into a flock with fatal effect, but without causing any of the birds which escaped injury to take wing. Like most obese creatures they are habitually sluggish, confining their wanderings afoot to limited areas, and exploiting these very deliberately, walking slowly and sedately in crouching attitudes, with measured steps, frequently stopping to thrust their bills listlessly a little way into the soft ground, or to pick up small morsels of food from the surface. Occasionally, however, one may see them running to and fro over the mud quite briskly and ceaselessly, perhaps incited to this comparatively unusual behavior by the example of other waders feeding close about them, for they are by no means averse to the companionship of several of the lesser kinds, such as semipalmated plover and sandpipers, grass-birds, dunlins, etc. Although somewhat loath to take wing, even when threatened by obvious danger, they are likely to fly swiftly and far, when once started, doubling and circling over the marshes in much the same manner as other small sandpipers.
John T. Nichols, says in his notes:
When startled, a bird has been seen to crouch down concealing the bulk of its white underparts and practically disappear against the brightly lighted mud flat on which it had been feeding. This is a habit shared by its close relatives the pectoral and least sandpipers.
Voice.—The white-rumped sandpiper is ordinarily a rather silent bird, but its short, sharp flight note is characteristic of the species and serves to distinguish it readily in the field. To me it sounds like tzeep or tzip; Mr. Nichols calls it "a squeaky mouse-like jeet"; Mr. Brewster (1925) describes it as "a feeble lisping zip or tsip, fringilline, rather than limicoline, in character"; and Doctor Townsend (1905) thinks that "it suggests at times the call note of the pipit." C. J. Maynard (1896) refers to "one cry in particular, being loudly given and greatly prolonged, resembling the scream of a rapacious bird more than the whistle of a sandpiper."
Field marks.—The best field mark for this species is the white rump, or rather upper tail-coverts; this is conspicuous in flight but is usually concealed by the wings when the bird is on the ground. I have noticed that, while the bird is standing with its side toward me, the gray of the upper parts extend down on the sides of the neck as far as the bend of the wing, whereas in the semipalmated sandpiper, with which it might be confused, there is a decided white space in front of the wing.
Mr. Nichols says in his notes:
This bird is a size larger than least or semipalmated sandpipers, and at favorable angles shows a diagnostic white patch crossing above the rather dark tail. This white patch is a good example of color which apparently functions as a recognition mark. If the same were fortuitous one would not expect the tail to be darker than in related species, as is the case, causing the white rump to show more prominently. Straight bill, (or with slight decurviture at the tip, like that of the pectoral sandpiper) and as a rule finely and sharply streaked head and breast prevent chance of confusion with the European curlew sandpiper, of casual occurrence on our Atlantic coast.
Fall.—The beginning of the fall flight is apparently southeastward from its breeding grounds west of Hudson Bay and perhaps southward from Baffin Island, where it breeds. Mr. Turner's Ungava notes give a very good idea of this first step in the migration and a good impression of the great abundance of this species; he writes:
As I proceeded farther northward I did not observe a single one of these sandpipers until we came to anchor off the mouth of Georges River (July 31) where quite a number were seen on the pebbly beach, seeking their food among the rocks and shingle as the tide receded. At this date quite a number, in fact fully three-fourths, of those seen were birds of the year as was fully attested by traces of downy plumage yet among the feathers of the body and especially on the head and neck. The sizes of the flocks varied from three or four to nearly a dozen, doubtless consisting of a single brood or, in the case of the larger flocks, of two or more broods with their parents. Some of the younger members of the flocks had the wing quills not fully developed while others were considerably farther advanced. Such a variation of plumage both in age and coloration was exhibited that I presumed there must be two weeks difference in the ages of the different young.
By the 10th of August all the young are well able to fly and make protracted flights in search of food. By this date they assemble in flocks, amounting at times, to thousands of individuals, resorting to the mud flats left bare by the receding tide. The mouth of the Koksoak and the cove to the westward of it present excellent tracts of mud deposited in the little indentations. By the middle of September these birds begin to depart to the south. Many of them ascended the Koksoak and others doubtless followed the windings of the coast down the Atlantic. I have seen numerous flocks over a hundred miles from the mouth of the river as late as October 12th, and an occasional single bird as late as the 20th of that month. I have observed, at the mouth of the Koksoak River, flocks of these birds often numbering over a hundred individuals suddenly appear from high in the air. These I suspected to be birds coming from the regions to the northward of the strait for they always came from the sea.
Thence there is an overland flight to the Atlantic coast. Mr. Brewster (1925) says:
White-rumped sandpipers visit Lake Umbagog regularly and not infrequently, if rather sparingly, in autumn, appearing oftenest during the month of October. Those arriving early in the season are mostly adult birds which occur singly or two or three together; those coming later are of various ages and sometimes in flocks containing as many as eight or nine members each, but rarely, if ever, a greater number. Bonaparte's sandpipers are hardy birds. They may be seen at the lake when its bordering marshes are stiff with frost. Once (October 26, 1883) I found nine of them near the mouth of Cambridge River two days after the entire region had been covered with snow to a depth of 7 inches.
This bird is a regular, but never an abundant, migrant on the coast of Massachusetts in the fall. The vast numbers which Turner saw in Ungava must seek some other route; the species is never abundant in the interior in the fall and it seems to be rather rare on the Atlantic coast south of New England; the natural inference is that it migrates at sea from Maine or Nova Scotia directly to South America or the West Indies. It is abundant at times in Bermuda.
The adults begin to reach Cape Cod in August, but the main flight comes in September, consisting partially of young birds; most of the young birds come in October and some linger as late as November 10. While with us the white-rumped sandpiper frequents the wet meadows and marshes near the shore, as well as the sand flats, mud flats, and beaches, feeding at low tide singly or in small flocks and usually associated with pectoral, semipalmated, or least sandpipers. During high tides, while the flats are covered, this species may be seen on the high sandy beaches, mixed in with the vast flocks of small shorebirds, sleeping, or resting, or preening their plumage, while waiting for feeding time to come again; if the wind is blowing, all the birds are facing it; many are crouching on the sand and others are standing on one leg with the bill tucked under the scapulars. These flocks often contain hundreds and sometimes thousands of birds, mainly semipalmated sandpipers, semipalmated plover, and sanderlings. They are not all asleep, however, for if approached too closely, they all rise and whirl away in a vast shimmering cloud, flashing now white and now dark as they turn, and settle on the beach again at no great distance.
Winter.—August finds the white-rumped sandpiper migrating along the coast of Brazil and it has been known to reach Cape Horn as early as September 9. Doctor Wetmore (1926) writes:
The white-rumped sandpiper was the most abundant of the migrant shore birds in the regions visited in southern South America. The species was not recorded until September 6, 1920, when it appeared in abundance in southward migration on the lagoons at kilometer 80, west of Puerto Pinasco, Paraguay. The first flocks from which specimens were taken were adult females, and two taken on the date when they were first recorded had laid eggs a few weeks previous as was shown by the appearance of the ovaries. The southward migration came with a rush as the birds passed through the night as witnessed by their calls. The flight continued until September 21, when a dozen, the last seen here, were recorded. The birds circled about lagoons in small compact flocks or walked along on muddy shores, where they fed with head down, probing rapidly in the soft mud; anything edible encountered was seized and swallowed and the bird continued without delay in its search for more.
Farther south this species was encountered in abundance in its winter range on the pampa. Ten were recorded at Dolores, Buenos Aires, October 21, and from October 22 to November 15 the species was found in numbers on the coastal mud flats on the Bay of Samborombom. A few were seen at pools of water in the sand dunes below Cape San Antonio. Along the Rio Ajo white-rumped sandpipers were encountered in flocks of hundreds that came upstream to search the mud flats at low tide or were concentrated on bars at the mouth when the water was high. In early morning there was a steady flight of them passing to suitable feeding grounds. The birds flew swiftly, with soft notes, from 3 to 15 feet from the earth. In feeding they scattered out in little groups that covered the bare mud systematically. It was not unusual to record as many as 2,000 in a day. About two hundred were observed in the bay at Ingeniero White, the port of Bahia Blanca, on December 13, and at Carhue, Buenos Aires, from December 16 to 18, white-rumped sandpipers were noted in fair numbers on inundated ground back of the shore of Lake Epiquen or about fresh-water ponds on the pampa inland. None were found in Uruguay during February.
Ernest Gibson (1920) says of this species, at Cape San Antonio, Buenos Aires:
This is certainly our commonest wader, and is found everywhere in flocks, from, say, the end of October to the middle or end of March. The number in these gatherings is only restricted by the area of the feeding ground; hence, when large mud flats are available in the vicinity of our fresh or salt water lagunas and cangrejales, or at the subsidence of a flood, the flocks are sometimes of enormous size. The observer may see many acres of ground which look to be in continuous movement, the surface being alive with the restless throng of sandpipers running about and chasing each other, feeding, or taking constant short flights.