illustrates the great variation in the beautiful eggs of this species.
There are two distinct types of ground color, green and buff. In the
green types the colors vary from "yellowish glaucous" to a light shade
of "grape green"; and in the buff types from "cream buff" to "dark olive
buff." They are sometimes evenly, but more often irregularly, spotted
and blotched with various shades of brown, "sepia," "bister," and "snuff
brown," sometimes boldly marked with "chocolate" and "burnt umber" and
sometimes with great splashes of "vinaceous brown" overlaid with
blotches of "chestnut brown" and "bay," a handsome combination. The
measurements of 100 eggs, supplied by Rev. F. C. R. Jourdain, average
37.3 by 26.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure
=40= by =28=, =35.1= by 26.6 and 37.3 by =24.8= millimeters.
_Plumages._--The nestling is described in Witherby's Handbook (1920) as
follows:
Fore part of crown warm buff; black-brown median line from base of
upper mandible to crown; crown and upper parts velvety black-brown,
down with numerous cream and warm buff tips; nape light buff, down
with sooty-brown bases; from base of upper mandible above eye to
nape a black-brown streak, another short one from base of lower
mandible, ear coverts as crown; cheeks warm or light buff, down
with black-brown tips; remaining under parts grayish white, down
sooty brown toward base.
The juvenal plumage is much like that of the summer adult, except that
the feathers of the crown are tipped with creamy white, as are also the
central tail feathers; the feathers of the mantle and scapulars are
edged with buffy white; and the wing coverts and tertials are broadly
edged with the same color or tipped with pale pinkish buff. The juvenal
body plumage is usually molted before the birds reach us on migration,
when young birds, in first winter plumage, can be recognized by the
broad white edgings of the median coverts and by a few retained
scapulars and tertials. Some of these juvenal feathers are retained
through the next, the partial prenuptial molt. Subsequent molts and
plumages are as in the adult.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt between August and November and
a partial prenuptial molt from January to May; this latter involves most
of the body plumage, but not all of the scapulars, back, rump, or upper
tail coverts.
_Food._--The favorite feeding places of purple sandpipers are the
wave-washed rocky shores of islands or promontories along the seashore,
with a decided preference for islands. Here, where the rocks are fringed
with rockweed, waving in the restless waves, or covered with barnacles
and various slimy products of the sea, these sure-footed little birds
are quite at home on the slippery rocks, as they glean abundant food at
the water's edge and skillfully avoid being washed away. Yarrell (1871)
says that--
it may be seen busily employed turning over stones and searching
among seaweed for the smaller shrimps and sandhoppers which are to
be found there, and it also feeds on young crabs, marine insects,
and the soft bodies of animals inhabiting small shells.
Witherby's Handbook (1920) gives its food as--
varied, including insects: coleoptera (_Otiorhynchus_), diptera
(larvae of _Chironomus_), also spiders, _Thysanura_ (or
_Collembola_), annelida and crustacea (_Amphipoda_, _Isopoda_,
_Orchestia_, _Idotea_, _Gammarus_, and _Podocerus_) as well as
mollusca (_Mytilus_, _Littorina_, _Purpura_, etc.). Vegetable
matter is also eaten including algae, grasses, moss, buds, and
leaves of phanerogams and remains of cryptogams. Seeds of
_Cochlearia_ have been identified and small fish (_Gobius_) nearly
1 inch long, as well as ova of lumpsucker.
_Behavior._--The flight of the purple sandpiper suggests at times that
of the spotted sandpiper, for when disturbed singly along the shore it
is apt to fly out over the water with rapid downward wing strokes and,
describing a large semicircle, return to the shore some distance ahead.
When flying in a flock the birds are often closely bunched, the whole
flock wheeling and turning in unison, showing alternately their dark
bodies and their white bellies, in true sandpiper fashion. As a rule
they do not make very long flights or fly very high. Their migrations
are short and deliberate. They are rather sedentary birds and can
generally be found in certain favorite localities all winter and year
after year. But, as they show a decided preference for the outer sides
of surf-swept ledges, they are not often seen from the land. They can
swim almost as well as phalaropes and in calm weather they will often
alight on half submerged seaweed or on the surface of the water. Dr.
Charles W. Townsend (1905), who watched a flock on an island off Cape
Ann, describes their actions as follows:
They finally alighted on a steeply sloping rock close to the
water's edge on the northeastern point of the island so that they
could be watched with binoculars and telescope from the shore.
Fifty-eight birds were in sight and there were fully half as many
more on the other side of the rock, hidden from view, except when
they jumped up from time to time. The flock must have numbered 75.
The tide was high and the birds were evidently trying to kill time
until low water, when they could gather their food from the seaweed
covered rocks. Most of them were resting, squatting on the rock
with head to the wind, their dark purplish-gray backs contrasting
strongly with their white bellies. Others were slowly raising their
wings over their backs, showing the white under surfaces. Again
they were chasing each other, making the sleepy ones jump suddenly,
or running up the rock to escape an unusually high wave, fluttering
with their wings to help themselves. From time to time they were
joined by bunches of from 5 to 10 others.
_Voice._--This species is a rather silent bird, but John T. Nichols says
in his notes: "When about to take wing a flock of purple sandpipers is
rather noisy, keeping up a swallowlike chatter, each single-syllabled
note suggestive of the _flip_ of the tree swallow and of the _kip_ of
the sanderling."
_Field marks._--A sandpiper seen on a rocky shore in New England in
winter is likely to be a purple sandpiper. Mr. Nichols suggests the
following field characters:
The purple sandpiper is a stockily built bird, which stands low and
has a moderately long bill. Its breast and upper parts of a dark
purplish gray match admirably the rocks on which it lives, and
although darker are not very different in tone from the coloring of
the red-backed sandpiper in fall, with which species it might
possibly be confused. Both have a white line in the wing shown in
flight, but in the purple sandpiper this broadens to a more
conspicuous wedge of white backward on the inner secondaries and
extends across the bases of the primaries as narrow edging to their
coverts, rather than turning the bend of the wing into the
primaries. The best field character is the color of legs and feet,
which are of a dull but strong yellow, appreciable at a
considerable distance. The basal third of the bill is of the same,
but tinged with orange.
_Fall._--The fall migration of the purple sandpiper is a gradual
southward movement along the Atlantic coast. It disappears from its
breeding grounds early in September, but the main flight does not reach
New England until November or December. What few stragglers have been
seen on the Great Lakes were probably migrants from Hudson Bay. E. W.
Hadeler writes to me that he observed one on the shore of Lake Erie,
Painesville, Ohio, from October 22 to November 12, 1916, and again from
October 24 to November 11, 1922. It is interesting to note the
uniformity of the dates and the fact that the species was seen always on
a stone breakwater, apparently feeding exclusively on the water-washed
stones.
_Winter._--The purple sandpiper is the "winter snipe" of the New England
coast, where flocks of from 25 to 75 or more may be found regularly on
certain outlying rocky ledges. Here they seek shelter among the rocks
from the flying spray and from the wintry blasts; and here they find
their food washed up by the waves or hidden in the half floating beds of
rockweed. On December 10, 1913, while we were shooting eiders on one of
the outer ledges in Jericho Bay, Maine, a flock of about 50 of these
hardy little birds seemed out of place in our rough surroundings. It was
a cold, blustering day; the surf was breaking over the rocks and the sea
was white with combing breakers; even the hardy sea ducks sought the
shelter of the ledges; but these plump little birds seemed quite happy
and contented as they huddled together in a compact flock on the
slippery rocks. They were very tame and confiding; even the reports of
our guns served only to make them circle out around the ledge a few
times and then return to its shelter. Evidently this was their winter
home. We did not have the heart to shoot any of them.
Mr. Nichols tells me that "very occasionally in winter, early spring or
late fall, one finds single birds on the sandy beaches of New York or
New Jersey south of the rocks."
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Europe, Asia, and northeastern North America.
_Breeding range._--In the Old World the purple sandpiper breeds in the
Arctic regions from Iceland, Norway, and Spitsbergen east to Nova Zembla
and the Taimyr Peninsula. In North America the breeding range extends
north to Franklin (Igloolik); and Greenland (Hare Island, and Shannon
Islands). East to Greenland (Shannon Islands and Ivimiut). South to
Greenland (Ivimiut and Ivigtut); and Franklin (southern Baffin Island,
Cumberland Sound, and Winter Island). West to Franklin (Winter Island
and Igloolik). It has been detected in summer still farther north;
Franklin (Mercy Bay, Fury Point, Boothia Felix, and Possession Bay); and
Greenland (Bowdoin Bay, Thank God Harbor, North Star Bay, and Fort
Conger).
_Winter range._--The purple sandpiper winters farther north than any
other shore bird. North and east to southern Greenland (Ivigtut);
eastern Nova Scotia (St. Peter's Island); Massachusetts (Rockport,
Westport, and Boston); Rhode Island (Cormorant Rock); Connecticut
(Saybrook and Faulkner Island); and rarely New York (Gull Island,
Montauk, and Amityville). South to New York (Amityville). West to New
York (Amityville); Connecticut (New Haven); Maine (Cumberland County,
Matinicus Island, and Washington County); New Brunswick (Grand Manan and
the Bay of Fundy); Prince Edward Island; and southern Greenland
(Ivigtut).
_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: Franklin,
Annanactook, June 4, Winter Island, June 10, Cambridge Bay, June 10, and
Igloolik, June 14; Greenland, about 72° north latitude, May 29; and
Baffin Island, Cape Dorset, May 30.
Late dates of spring departure are: New York, Sag Harbor, April 18, and
Long Beach, May 4, Rhode Island, Sachuest Point, May 15; Massachusetts,
Dennis, May 5; and Quebec, Prince of Wales Sound, May 27, Quatachoo, May
29, and Mingan Islands, May 29.
_Fall migration._--Early dates of fall arrival are Quebec, Bras d'Or,
August 4; New Brunswick, Grand Manan, August 13; Ontario, Toronto,
October 27, Ottawa, October 29, and Hamilton, October 31; Maine, Metinic
Green Island, August 6, Saddleback Ledge, August 19; Massachusetts, Cape
Cod, September 6, Chatham, September 8, and Nahant, October 13; Rhode
Island, Sachuest Point, September 13; and New York, Montauk, November 1,
Orient, November 1, and Long Beach, November 2.
Late dates of fall departure are: Greenland, Possession Bay, September
1, and Thank God Harbor, September 3; Mackenzie, Great Bear Lake,
September 16; and Franklin, Wellington Channel, August 28, Kingwah
Fjord, September 6, Cumberland Gulf, September 13, and Pangnirtung
Fjord, October 21.
_Casual records._--The purple sandpiper has been reported as seen at the
entrance to St. George Harbor, Bermuda, and there are a few records for
the south Atlantic coast and the interior, among which are: New Jersey,
Delaware Bay (specimen in British Museum), Beach Haven, October 31,
1896, and one found dead at the Absecon Lighthouse; Georgia, one in the
Sennett collection taken, March 5, 1874; Florida, Key Biscayne, October
29, 1857, and Gordan's Pass, November 1, 1886; Missouri, Boonville,
between April 16 and May 31, 1854; Illinois, near Chicago, November 7,
1871; Ohio, Sandusky, November 19, 1925, and Painesville, October 22,
1916, and October 24, 1922; and Wisconsin, Door County, May, 1881.
_Egg dates._--Greenland: 18 records, May 16 to June 30; 9 records, June
1 to 19. Iceland: 6 records, May 21 to June 17. Baffin Island; 2
records, July 21 and 28.
ARQUATELLA PTILOCNEMIS PTILOCNEMIS (Coues)
PRIBILOF SANDPIPER
HABITS
As explained under the Aleutian sandpiper, this bird is probably not a
subspecies of the purple sandpiper; so the name _maritima_ can not be
used for either _ptilocnemis_ or _couesi_. I have therefore thought it
best to follow Ridgway (1919) in the use of his names for the Pribilof
and Aleutian sandpipers, rather than use the Check List names.
The Pribilof sandpiper has the most restricted distribution of any North
American sandpiper. In summer it is confined to the chilly and foggy
uplands of the Pribilof Islands, the equally cool, damp lowlands of St.
Matthew Island, Hall Island, and perhaps St. Lawrence Island, all in
Bering Sea. And its known migration range is limited to a few
localities on the mainland of Alaska and in the Aleutian Islands, where
it probably winters. It may breed more extensively on St. Lawrence
Island than it is now known to do, but it has not yet been found
breeding anywhere on the mainland. G. Dallas Hanna (1921) says:
I strongly suspect that the birds have some other extensive
breeding ground than St. George, St. Paul, and St. Matthew Islands,
because in September and October large flocks come to the two
former islands; these appear to contain many more individuals than
are in existence on all three. Whether St. Lawrence Island supplies
the extra number or not remains for future determination. The
winter range of the species is practically unknown, the only
records being from Portage Bay, southeast Alaska, and Lynn Canal,
between Alaska and British Columbia. The appearance of the birds at
the former locality in flocks in spring (if identifications were
correct) indicates that they wintered farther south, probably on
Vancouver and other islands of British Columbia. They could hardly
have come from beyond these localities and have remained
undiscovered.
_Spring._--The same writer says:
Spring migration takes place the latter part of April and the first
half of May. My earliest record for St. Paul Island is April 15
(1915) when a flock appeared at Northeast Point. The height of
migration is a little later than that date and may usually be
expected from the 1st to the 15th of May. Birds are almost
invariably paired upon arrival. Very few spring flocks have been
seen on the Pribilofs, and they do not tarry by the beaches, but go
directly to the upland nesting sites. It seems to be uncommon for
more than the resident population to land upon an island in spring.
The birds seem to go directly to the chosen breeding grounds,
wherever they may be. This fact is of wide application among the
northern shore birds. Only rare stragglers of such species as
golden plovers, turnstones, and pectoral and sharp-tailed
sandpipers stop at the Pribilofs on their way north, but large
numbers of some of them come in fall.
_Courtship._--Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) writes:
The male of the pair seen by me on St. Lawrence Island in June kept
flying up some 10 or 15 yards, its wings beating with a rapid
vibrating or tremulous motion, while the bird thus poised trilled
forth a clear, rather musical and liquid but hard, whistling note,
which is probably the same note which Elliott likens to the trill
of the tree frog. The short song ended, the musician glides to the
ground upon stiffened wings and resumes his feeding or stands
silently for a time on a projecting rock or knoll.
_Nesting._--We found Pribilof sandpipers very common in July on the low
tundra at the south end of St. Matthew Island, where they were evidently
breeding just back of the beaches. They were also common in the interior
at the north end of this island and on the highlands of Hall Island. We
collected a few specimens of the birds, but had no time to hunt for
nests. We are indebted to Mr. Hanna (1921) for his excellent account of
the nesting habits of this bird, from which I quote as follows:
On St. George Island the high upland tundra has been chosen for
breeding ground. Here, among the reindeer "mosses" and light gray,
lichen-covered rocks the sandpipers reign supreme in the fog. Some
speculating may be indulged in to find a reason for so unusual a
choice of locality. Elevations up to 500 feet are sought. Perhaps
they shun the seacoasts on account of the presence there of large
numbers of foxes. During all history this has been a greater fox
island than either St. Paul or St. Matthew. On the latter island in
June and July the birds may be found in large numbers around and
back of the driftwood piles. If it were not for this fact being
known, we might suspect that on St. George the light gray tundra
was selected for protective purposes, the birds themselves being
distinguished chiefly by their light colors. St. Paul Island, for
some unaccountable reason, is not chosen as a breeding ground
except by a very few pairs. In 1919 not over a dozen were found
during the entire nesting season, when almost all of the available
areas were seen.
On the breeding grounds of St. George and St. Matthew the birds
are very common, and from one to a dozen are in almost constant
attendance upon the visitor. They sight him from afar and fly to
meet him. Some bird will almost always try to lead him astray. If
followed, it flies from knoll to knoll, often not more than 20
yards away. It remains in front of the visitor regardless of the
direction he may take; whether toward or from the nest, makes no
difference. After several minutes of this a sudden flight, with
the familiar "song," is taken to some distant hill and the
searcher for a nest is left confused and confounded.
A search for the nest will exhaust the patience of any except the
most persistent collector. Messrs. Compton and Partch have been
more successful than anyone else in locating them, and all of us
agree that when a bird flies to meet the visitor, as just
described, it is a pure waste of time to watch or follow it. Every
method known to us of locating nests by watching the actions of
the parents has failed. We have located nests and then endeavored
to establish rules for guidance with others, but no definite facts
could be determined. It was finally agreed that it was useless to
watch a bird under any circumstances more than 15 minutes. If the
location of the nest is not disclosed in that time, it is safe to
assume that the mate is on it, and it might be hours before the
guard would go there. In the meantime it may fly half a mile away
and forget to come back, even to tease the hopeful collector lying
concealed in the mist and fog behind some cheerless rock. No
definite range can be ascribed to any one pair of birds, because
those off the nests mingle indiscriminately. Very often a bird
will fly completely out of the range of vision in the fog.
The action of a bird leaving a nest is unmistakable, and can
always be recognized, once it is learned. It is a quick, excited,
jerky flight, very close to the ground, and the bird goes but a
very few yards until it feigns injury in its endeavor to entice
the intruder away. It will always flutter in front of a person,
even though he walk directly toward the nest. When the bird is
seen to fly, the eggs are even more inconspicuous and difficult to
find unless the exact spot from which it flew be located. Compton
thus flushed a bird which he knew had a nest, but he was at a loss
to find it. At last he left his cane as nearly as possible where
the nest should have been and repaired to a near-by rock to watch
and wait. In a few minutes the bird returned to the eggs, which
were located about a yard from the stick. When the bird is flushed
from a nest it seldom happens that the other parent is near.
The nest is a mere depression about three and a half inches wide by
two and a half inches deep. Most of the material is removed, but it
is evidently packed down to a certain extent. No foreign material
is carried at all. The nest is usually, but not necessarily, on
some very slightly elevated ground and among the lichens called
"reindeer moss." Some nests have been found where there was an
admixture of _Hypnum_ moss and again where the dwarf willows creep,
rootlike, beneath the surface.
_Eggs._--I can not do better than to quote again from Mr. Hanna (1921);
he writes:
The normal set of eggs consists of four. A greater number has never
been found, and a less number only when it was uncertain if the
full set had been laid. As much as three days may intervene between
egg laying, but usually the four are deposited on successive days.
When one set of eggs is taken, another will be laid. But the same
nest is not used the second time, the contentions of some natives
to the contrary notwithstanding. A set of eggs found as late as
July 24, 1917, certainly indicated that two may be laid in the same
season on rare occasions. One set is the rule.
The color of the eggs is, as would be expected, somewhat variable.
The lightest set examined in connection with this report has the
ground color "greenish glaucous." From this there is perfect
gradation through "court gray" and "light olive gray" to "deep
olive buff" in the darkest set. Variation in any particular set is
very slight. Spots are large and bold as a rule. They vary in size
from 15 millimeters to less than one, and they are usually massed
about the larger end. In one case the eggs are uniformly spotted
with small spots all over. In none is the spotting heaviest on the
smaller end (reversed eggs). Spots are usually inclined to be
round, but occasionally they are in the form of streaks arranged
roughly in spiral form. Only rarely are they banded about the
larger end. In two cases a narrow black line was produced spirally
on the larger end. The coloration of the spots varies from "snuff
brown" to "sepia" and from "cinnamon brown" to "mummy brown." In
some cases they are "raw umber." The darkest shades occur where
the spots overlap and some deep-seated ones are "pale aniline
lilac" or "pale" to "deep quaker drab." Only rarely is the outline
of a spot not sharp.
The average dimensions derived from the above series of 72 eggs
are: Length, 39.473 and breadth 27.468. Those which showed the
extreme measurements were =42.0= by 27.8; =35= by 27.4; 37.6 by
=39=, and 39.1 by =26.4.=
_Young._--The period of incubation is said to be about 20 days, in which
both sexes share. William Palmer (1899) says:
The young leave the nest soon after hatching and are thoroughly
well concealed by their mimicry of the confusing mixture of mosses,
lichens, and other forms of vegetation which abounds and are so
well intermingled on these islands. It requires much patience and a
close scrutiny to detect a crouching young, even when it is
directly within reach. Obedient to their mother's cries they
flatten themselves with head and neck extended; with each yard of
the ground precisely similar in pattern and color with every other
yard, and the parents, especially the female, trying their best to
coax us in other directions, and the uncertainty as to the exact
location of the young, all combine against the collector, so that
few specimens reward a tramp that seems exasperatingly needless.
The young will not move, though one stands with the foot touching
them, but when once handled and released they scamper off with all
the quickness their long legs can give them. When we invade the
vicinity of a nest or young it is amusing to watch the antics of
the female. She invariably flies in front and flutters with feigned
lameness but a few feet away. If the ground is rough it is more
amusing to watch the precipitancy of her flight until she
disappears in a hollow, to reappear in a moment on the other side,
cautiously turning round and eying us to see if we are following.
She always keeps in front of us, no matter which way we turn, and
will continue thus for several hundred yards, when she will
suddenly fly off to some distance and after waiting awhile will
return to the vicinity of the nest or young.
Mr. Hanna (1921) writes: