begin to gather into flocks, move off their breeding grounds, and start
on their fall migrations. The migratory flights are made mainly during
the night or early evening. At this season the birds are much wilder,
the leisurely behavior of spring and summer has gone, their flight is
much swifter and stronger, and it is difficult to approach the loose,
detached flocks which stop to feed during the day on the hoards of
grasshoppers and locusts which are then to be found in the upland
pastures and dry meadows. During wet spells they do not stop, but in
hot, dry weather they linger to feast on the abundant insect life and
become very fat. We used to expect them in Massachusetts about the last
of July, but they were most abundant in August and early September. The
general movement is southward, through the interior and the Atlantic
Coast States and through the West Indies to South America. The earliest
birds reach Louisiana and Texas early in July and arrive in Peru and
Argentina in September. The last birds leave their breeding range
before the end of September.
_Game._--The upland plover is, or was, a fine game bird. Over 40 years
ago, in my younger shooting days, these birds were still fairly common
in Massachusetts, but it was no easy job to make a fair day’s bag; it
meant tramping many miles over rolling, or hilly pasture lands, where
the wary birds rose at long range and flew swiftly away for a long
distance. One had to shoot quickly and accurately to kill his bird, and
perhaps chase one for several miles before getting even a long shot at
him. It was a real sporting proposition with the chances much in the
bird’s favor. The birds would not come to decoys, nor to the gunner’s
whistle and a dog was utterly useless except to retrieve birds. A
thorough knowledge of the ground and of the birds’ fly-ways sometimes
brought results, when we could hide behind some fence or stone wall and
wait for the birds to fly over. Even meager results were well worth
while, for we had plenty of good exercise and the birds made delicious
morsels for the table.
A more common and more successful, though less sportsmanlike, method of
shooting them is thus described by Edwin Sandys (1904):
A popular method in many parts of the West is to drive to
the birds in a buckboard, or other convenient rig. For a
man who can shoot well in the sitting posture this is an
excellent plant, as the birds almost invariably will permit
a wheeled conveyance to approach within comparatively easy
range. A clever driver is a valuable assistance. Such a
man never heads his team directly at the birds, but drives
as though he merely intended to pass them by. A good
judge of distance in the open can in this way edge within
comfortable range of plover which, if the driver steered
straight for them, or with the gun attempted to dismount
and stalk, would at once make off. I have varied the
shooting from the seat by walking at the horse’s shoulders.
The plover do not appear to notice the extra pair of legs.
This sometimes gives the prettiest kind of shooting. All
one has to do is to judge when sufficiently close, then
stand still with the gun at the ready, while the team moves
steadily ahead. Usually the plover will take wing the
moment the foot-man is uncovered; but should they not, the
man can gain a few yards by briskly walking toward them.
I have occasionally stalked them by keeping close to the
shoulder of a steady old horse that was indifferent in the
matters of smoke and loud reports.
Edward H. Forbush (1912) writes:
About 1880, when the supply of passenger pigeons began to
fail, and the marketmen, looking about for some other game
for the table of the epicure in spring and summer, called
for plover, the destruction of the upland plover began in
earnest. The price increased. In the spring migration the
birds were met by a horde of market gunners, shot, packed
in barrels and shipped to the cities. There are tales of
special refrigerator cars sent out to the prairie regions,
and parties of gunners regularly employed to follow the
birds and ship plover and curlews by the carload to the
Chicago market. These may not be based on facts, but we
know that the birds came to market in great quantities.
_Winter._--The upland plover spends our winter months on the pampas of
Argentina and Patagonia, where unfortunately it is more sought for by
market hunters than it is here. Mr. Hudson (1920) writes:
This species differs from its fellow-migrants of the same
family from the north to Argentina in its wide and even
distribution over all that portion of the pampas where
the native coarse grasses which once covered the country
have disappeared, an area comprising not less than 50,000
square miles. It begins to arrive as early as September,
coming singly or in small parties of three or four; and,
extraordinary as the fact may seem when we consider the
long distance the bird travels, and the monotonous nature
of the level country it uses as a “feeding area,” it is
probable that every bird returns to the same spot year
after year; for in no other way could such a distribution
be maintained, and the birds appear every summer evenly
sprinkled over so immense a surface.
Doctor Wetmore (1926) says:
Formerly abundant, the upland plover is now rare in the
region where it spends the period of northern winter. Its
winter range on the open pampa is a region so vast that it
is difficult to form a proper estimate of the actual number
of individuals of the species that remain. Among epicures
the species has inherited in part the name and reputation
of the Eskimo curlew and is sought constantly by gunners to
supply that demand. The few that survive frequent remote
regions on some of the large estancias where they are
secure until they leave their seclusion and begin their
return flight northward. The majority of those that I noted
were identified by their liquid calls, heard, as is the
case in Washington, as they passed at night.
He says again (1927):
In the season of 1919–20 the upland plover was reported
to have increased somewhat in abundance at Rosas in the
Province of Buenos Aires, a circumstance due perhaps to
protection in the United States and Canada. It can hardly
be expected to regain anywhere near its former abundance,
however, with increasing encroachment on its winter and
summer ranges. Unfortunately, in Argentina it has replaced
the Eskimo curlew as a table delicacy, and is so eagerly
sought by gunners that its preservation in settled regions
is doubtful. Those that remain must seek the pastures of
remote estancias in order to survive.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--North and South America; accidental in Europe.
_Breeding range._--The breeding range of the upland plover extends
north to Alaska (Kobuk River and Gens de Large Mountains); southern
Mackenzie (probably Fort Smith); Saskatchewan (Prince Albert, Quill
Lake, and Crescent Lake); Manitoba (Shoal Lake and Winnipeg); Minnesota
(Clarissa, St. Cloud, Minneapolis, and Lake City); Wisconsin (Kingston
and Kelley Brook); Michigan (Lovells and Zion City); Ontario (probably
Plover Mills, Dunnville, and Kingston); northern New York (Canton and
Potsdam); southern Quebec (Hatley); and Maine (Farmington, Plymouth,
Orono, and Calais). East to Maine (Calais); Massachusetts (Salem,
Marthas Vineyard, and Nantucket); probably Connecticut (South Windsor);
New York (Montauk Point); New Jersey (Princeton, Lawrenceville, and
probably Tuckerton); Virginia (Wallops Island); and rarely South
Carolina (Oakland). South to rarely South Carolina (Oakland); southern
Indiana (Bicknell); Illinois (Olney and Odin); Missouri (Appleton and
probably Stotesbury); Oklahoma (Copan and Fort Reno); probably Texas
(Gainesville); Colorado (Barr and Denver); Utah (Kamas Prairies); and
Oregon (Fort Klamath). West to Oregon (Fort Klamath); northern Idaho
(Lapwai and Fort Sherman); British Columbia (Newgate and Osoyoos Lake);
probably Alberta (Edmonton and Athabaska Landing); and Alaska (Mount
McKinley and Kobuk River).
_Winter range._--The main winter range of the species is confined
to the southern part of South America, north to northern Argentina
(Tucuman); and southern Brazil (Irisanga and probably Mattodentro).
East to southern Brazil (probably Mattodentro); Uruguay (Concepcion,
Sta. Elena, and Colonia); and eastern Argentina (Buenos Aires and
Rio Negro). South to Argentina (Rio Negro). West to Argentina (Rio
Negro, Mendoza, and Tucuman). A specimen was taken at San Angelo,
Tex., January 1, 1883, but this must be considered as an accidental
occurrence as the species at this season is usually found only in
southern South America.
_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: Ecuador,
Chaupicuz, March 30; Chiapas, Comitan, March 29; Florida, Indian Key,
March 17, St. Marks, March 23, Deer Park, March 24, and Leon County,
March 25; Alabama, Barachias, March 7, Coosada, March 22, and Sand
Mountain, March 29; Georgia, Macon, March 18, and Savannah, March 23;
South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, March 11, and Frogmore, March 24; North
Carolina, Raleigh, March 28; Virginia, Alexandria, March 22; District
of Columbia, Washington, March 21; Pennsylvania, Marietta, March 27,
Plymouth, April 10, and Erie, April 11; New Jersey, Haddonfield,
April 7, and Cape May, April 12; New York, Long Island, April 1,
Watertown, April 6, and Amagansett, April 11; Connecticut, Jewett
City, April 16, and Saybrook, April 22; Rhode Island, Newport, April
29; Massachusetts, Woods Hole, April 10, Salem, April 12, and Cape
Cod, April 12; Vermont, Woodstock, April 17, Bennington, April 22, and
Rutland, April 26; Maine, Pittsfield, April 14, Plymouth, April 25,
and Portland, April 30; Louisiana, New Orleans, March 9, Hester, March
16, and Lobdell, March 19; Mississippi, Biloxi, March 10, and Rodney,
March 27; Tennessee, Nashville, March 31; Kentucky, Guthrie, March 20;
Missouri, St. Louis, March 17, Appleton City, March 19, and Kahoka,
March 20; Illinois, Rockford, March 19, Lebanon, March 20, and Canton,
March 27; Indiana, Bicknell, March 13, Vigo County, March 19, and
Vincennes, April 1; Ohio, Oberlin, March 20, Berlin Center, March 23,
and Columbus, March 29; Michigan, Ann Arbor, March 15, Plymouth, April
8, and Livonia, April 12; Ontario, Forest, April 16, London, April 17
and Preston, April 18; Iowa, Storm Lake, March 25, Wall Lake, March 30,
and Hillsboro, March 31; Wisconsin, Delavan, March 24, Milford, April
10, and Stoughton, April 11; Minnesota, Lanesboro, April 8, North Star,
April 9, and St. Cloud, April 16; Texas, Bonham, March 5, Mont Belvieu,
March 8, Dallas, March 10, and Corpus Christi, March 13; Oklahoma,
Copan, March 31; Kansas, Girard, March 16, Richmond, March 28, Topeka,
April 1, and Onaga, April 7; Nebraska, Falls City, April 6, Badger,
April 7 and Syracuse, April 9; South Dakota, Vermilion, April 9, Grand
View, April 14, and Rapid City, April 15; North Dakota, Argusville,
April 26, Larimore, April 26, and Marstonmoor, April 30; Manitoba,
Aweme, April 26, Reaburn, April 30, Winnipeg, May 2, and Two Rivers,
May 3; Saskatchewan, South qu’Appelle, April 16, Wiseton, April 25, and
Indian Head, May 2; Colorado, Denver, April 18, and Colorado Springs,
April 28; Wyoming, Lake Como, May 5; Montana, Billings, April 23,
Columbia Falls, April 27, and Terry, May 10; Alberta, Flagstaff, May 2,
Alliance, May 7, and Red Deer, May 11; and British Columbia, Osoyoos
Lake, May 25.
Late dates of spring departure are: Argentina, Buenos Aires, April 3,
Tucuman, April 5, and Baradero, April 13; Bolivia, Piedra Blanca, April
23; Brazil, Tonantino, May 7; Guatemala, Duenas, April 12; Mexico,
Chiapas, Teopisca, May 7; Yucatan, Cancun Island, April 19; Vera Cruz,
Lake Catemaco, May 5; Florida, Garden Key, May 2, Loggerhead Key,
May 7, and Pensacola, May 9; Georgia, Savannah, April 28; Louisiana,
Lobdell, May 15, and New Orleans, May 19; Mississippi, Biloxi, May 16;
and Texas, Brownsville, April 15, Bonham, May 12, and Huntsville, May
18.
_Fall migration._--Early dates of fall arrival are: New Mexico,
Glenrio, July 25; Texas, San Angelo, July 4, and Lipscomb, July 10;
Louisiana, New Orleans, July 5, and Abbeville, July 25; Alabama,
Montgomery, July 28, and Barachias, August 22; Florida, Pensacola,
August 9, and Arcadia, August 22; the Bahama Islands, Mariguana, August
5; the Lesser Antilles, Barbados, August 12, and Granada, August
24; Mexico, Jalisco, Chapata, August 27; Costa Rica, September 5;
Panama, Gatun, September 1; Colombia, Cienaga, September 12; Ecuador,
Carapungo, August 10, and Cerro Campania, September 24; Brazil, Matto
Grosso, September 26; Paraguay, Puerto Pinasco, September 29, and
Concepcion, October 3.
Late dates of fall departure are: Alberta, Red Deer River, September
22; Montana, Big Sandy, September 6; Wyoming, Little Medicine, August
15; Colorado, Fort Lyon, September 2; New Mexico, Glenrio, September
11; Manitoba, Treesbank, September 7, Margaret, September 18, and
Aweme, September 28; North Dakota, Marstonmoor, September 15, and
Westhope, September 24; South Dakota, Huron, September 2, Sioux
Falls, September 6, and Forestburg, September 30; Nebraska, Dewitt,
September 21, Badger, September 28, and Valentine, October 5; Kansas,
near Wichita, October 3, Topeka, October 13, and Onaga, October 15;
Texas, Grapevine, September 25, Gainesville, September 28, and Corpus
Christi, October 2; Minnesota, Lanesboro, August 22, and St. Vincent,
August 31; Iowa, Emmetsburg, October 14, Newton, October 22, and
Grinnell, November 2; Michigan, Livonia, September 18, and Detroit,
October 20; Ohio, Lakeside, October 13, Scio, October 17, and Waverly,
October 23; Illinois, La Grange, October 5, Belvidere, October 24, and
Rantoul, November 29; Missouri, Monteer, September 17, and Jasper City,
September 27; Kentucky, Lexington, October 11; Louisiana, New Orleans,
October 7; Maine, Pittsfield, September 22; Vermont, St. Johnsbury,
September 25; Massachusetts, Harvard, September 14, Taunton, September
19, and Woods Hole, September 29; Rhode Island, Block Island, September
6; Connecticut, Hartford, September 3, and Litchfield, September 6;
New York, Phelps, September 14, Montauk, September 17, Orient Point,
September 23, and Floral Park, October 20; New Jersey, Absalom Light,
September 15; Pennsylvania, Erie, September 22, Germantown, October 2,
and Bridesburg, October 18; Virginia, Alexandria, November 5; North
Carolina, Weaverville, November 10; South Carolina, Mt. Pleasant,
October 28; Georgia, Savannah, September 20; Alabama, Barachias,
October 26; Florida, Key West, October 3; Costa Rica, San Jose,
November 15; Nicaragua, Escondido River, November 26; Panama, Culebra,
October 22, and Davila, November 30 and Gatun, December 8; Guiana,
Cayenne, October 27; Peru, Cosnipata, October 3; and Brazil, Allianca,
November 9.
_Casual records._--A specimen of the upland plover taken February
8, 1923 at Deception Island, South Shetlands, must be considered
accidental, as this is far south of its normal winter range (Bennett,
1926). The species has been reported as occasional in spring in
Newfoundland (Macoun) and one was obtained on Sable Island in 1868
(Gilpin). There are several records for Quebec (Montreal and Godbout)
from May 7 to October. Two have been taken in Bermuda (September 20,
1874, and September 18, 1875). In Porto Rico one was obtained by Stahl
between 1878 and 1881 (Gundlach); F. A. Potts reports that he saw one
September 10, 1921 near Central Aguirre, collected one from a flock
of 15 on September 13, 1921, near Santa Isabel, and saw still another
August 26, 1926 near Fortuna. On the Pacific coast south of British
Columbia, it is known from a specimen taken August 8, 1896, at Tule
Lake, California, and one taken at Sulphur Springs, Arizona, August 18,
1874.
There are six records for England, Warwick, October 31, 1851,
Cambridge, December 12, 1854, Bigswear, January 19, 1855, Falmouth
November 13, 1865, Boulmer, November 21, 1879 and the Parret River in
Somersetshire (date ?); one for Denmark Tim, November 3, 1920; one for
Malta, November 17, 1865; one for Holland (Meyer); one for Germany,
Hessen (Naumann); and one for Italy, Liguria, October, 1859. It also
was taken near Sydney, Australia, in 1865 (Gould).
_Egg dates._--New England and New York: 10 records, April 28 to June
13. Pennsylvania and New Jersey: 15 records, May 6 to June 11; 8
records, May 15 to 27. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Dakotas, and Minnesota:
86 records, May 4 to July 1; 43 records, June 1 to 15. Ohio to Iowa and
Kansas: 22 records, April 30 to June 17; 11 records, May 14 to 20.
TRYNGITES SUBRUFICOLLIS (Vieillot)
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER
HABITS
My acquaintance with this species is limited to a few birds seen
migrating in company with golden plover on the burnt-over prairies
about Quill Lake, Saskatchewan. I have never seen it elsewhere. Like
the upland plover, it is a sandpiper which has associated much with
plover, frequents similar haunts, and has acquired some similar habits.
_Spring._--W. H. Hudson (1922) gives a striking account of the spring
migration of this species in Argentina during its former abundance,
from which I quote, as follows:
Now, one autumn, when most of the emigrants to the Arctic
breeding grounds had already gone, I witnessed a great
migration of this very species--this beautiful sandpiper
with the habits of a plover. The birds appeared in flocks
of about one to two or three hundred, flying low and very
swiftly due north, flock succeeding flock at intervals of
about 10 or 12 minutes; and this migration continued for
three days, or at all events three days from the first
day I saw them, at a spot about 2 miles from my home. I
was amazed at their numbers, and it was a puzzle to me
then, and has been one ever since, that a species thinly
distributed over the immense area of the Argentine pampas
and Patagonia could keep to that one line of travel over
that uniform green, sea-like country. For outside of that
line not one bird of the kind could anywhere be seen;
yet they kept so strictly to it that I sat each day for
hours on my horse watching them pass, each flock first
appearing as a faint buff-colored blur or cloud just above
the southern horizon, rapidly approaching then passing me,
about on a level with my horse’s head, to fade out of sight
in a couple of minutes in the north; soon to be succeeded
by another and yet other flocks in endless succession, each
appearing at the same point as the one before, following
the same line, as if a line invisible to all eyes except
their own had been traced across the green world for their
guidance. It gave one the idea that all the birds of this
species, thinly distributed over tens of thousands of
square miles of country, had formed the habit of assembling
previous to migration at one starting point, from which
they set out in successive flocks of a medium size in a
disciplined order on that marvelous journey to their Arctic
breeding grounds.
Dr. Alexander Wetmore (1926) noted migrating birds at Guamini on March
3 to 8. Prof. W. W. Cooke (1912) says that “migrants appear in the
interior of Brazil and in Peru during March, but there are no spring
migration data for the whole distance between Peru and Texas.” There
is a heavy migration through Texas during April and then directly
northward through the western part of the Mississippi Valley and the
prairie Provinces of Canada to the Arctic tundra. The whole migration
route in the spring seems to be very narrow. Prof. William Rowan (1927)
writes:
This is a remarkable sandpiper from many viewpoints. Like
the American golden plover and the Eskimo curlew it used
to exist in millions and was slaughtered in uncountable
numbers. To-day there are many widely traveled collectors
who have never in their lives met with it. After extensive
inquiries I can discover only one spot on the continent
besides our point on which migrating buff-breasted
sandpipers may be relied upon to turn up in any numbers. We
get it in hundreds every spring, and, roughly speaking, it
frequents only one field. Odd birds or moving flocks may be
noted elsewhere from time to time, but on the rough pasture
that forms the main body of the point this species arrives
with unfailing regularity within a day or two of the 18th
of May. Like the golden plover, it seems to migrate by
night, for at daybreak there may be hundreds in place of
the few or none at all of the previous evening.
In his notes for 1924 he writes to me:
Two birds were seen May 19 and subsequently collected.
On the 21st, five were seen shortly after sunrise with
black-bellied plover, the first time that I have seen this
association, but a large arrival took place during the day
and there were scores in the evening. On the 24th they
had reached numbers such as I have never before seen and
numerous photographs were taken. On the 26th they must have
been on the ground in many hundreds. The whole of their
area, over a mile long, was crawling with them. There is no
doubt that this year they outnumbered every other wader we
had on the place. Even so, they never formed large flocks,
and I think we never saw more than 60 get up and fly
together. They dropped very suddenly in numbers after this,
as though they had all cleared off together, but a few were
seen each day till the 30th, when a flock of 30 constituted
our last record.
Pierce Brodkorb and Frank Grasett have recorded it in northeastern
Illinois as early as April 27. A. G. Lawrence’s dates for Whitewater
Lake, Manitoba, are from May 13 to 19. Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) noted
the first arrivals at St. Michael, Alaska, on May 31; and John Murdoch
(1885) says that it arrived at Point Barrow June 6 to 8.
_Courtship._--Professor Rowan (1927) has given us the most elaborate
account of the nuptial display of the buff-breasted sandpiper, as
follows:
As we have noted it annually, there are several distinct
stages to the display, but the males do not appear to be
concerned in the least with the females at any time. Nor
have I ever seen a female take the slightest notice of any
of the displays. Nelson comments on the fact that Murdoch
frequently saw solitary males displaying, yet he was
observing them on the actual breeding grounds.
Probably the most frequent performance is the raising of
one wing only (either one), but this has various phases.
A, the wing is spread and held steadily for a few moments
with the primaries horizontal and is then closed again. B,
the wing is spread with the primaries nearly perpendicular
and waved round in an ellipse, the bird standing still. C,
the wing is spread while the bird runs round in circles.
D, the wing is held aloft while the owner runs after
another bird, always, so far as I have seen, another male,
which instantly raises one wing also and starts zigzagging
through the grass, the first bird giving chase. They may
thus cover many yards before one suddenly collapses his
wing and halts, the second immediately following suit. All
these single-wing performances seem to be carried out in
silence.