relative, the purple sandpiper, but it is even tamer, less suspicious,
and quieter in its movements. We had plenty of chances to get acquainted
with it in the Aleutian Islands. We met it, and collected the first
specimen of it, on the first island that we landed on, Akun Island, and
after that we saw it on every island we visited, though it was much more
abundant on the more western islands. These bleak islands, with their
forbidding, rocky shores and stony beaches, washed with cold spray or
enveloped in chilly fog, are the summer home of this hardy little "beach
snipe," as it is called by the natives. It moves about so quietly and
deliberately, and its colors match its surroundings so well, that we
were constantly coming upon it unexpectedly. It was usually so intent on
feeding that it paid no attention to passers-by; it was often necessary
to back off to a reasonable distance before shooting one, and I shot
several with squib charges in an auxiliary barrel. It is the tamest and
most unsuspicious shore bird I have ever seen. On this point Mr. Turner
(1886) says:
It is not at all shy, depending more on its color to hide by
squatting among the crevices of the dark lava rocks and thus be
unobserved. When cautiously approached, these birds generally run
to the highest part of the rock or bowlder which they are on, then
huddle together before taking flight the moment after. This habit
allows them to be nearly all killed at a single discharge of the
gun. The native boys, having observed this habit of these birds,
procure a club about two feet long, and when the birds huddle
together before taking flight the club is hurled in such manner as
to sweep all the birds off the rock. This manner of procuring these
birds is practiced by the western Aleut boys to a great degree.
Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) writes:
A pair were found feeding on a series of bare, jagged rocks, over
which the spray flew in a dense cloud as every wave beat at the
foot of the rocky shore. I shot one of them, and the survivor
merely flew up and stood eyeing me silently from the top of a low
cliff 20 or 25 feet overhead until it, too, fell a victim. Later in
the day another was seen near the border of a small lake in the
interior of the island. It ran nimbly on before me, over the mossy
hillocks, stopping every few feet and half turning to watch my
movements, just as a spotted sandpiper would do under the
circumstances. When driven to take wing, it flew a short distance,
with the same peculiar down-curved wings and style of flight as has
the spotted sandpiper.
Hamilton M. Laing (1925) says that "on one occasion one was seen to swim
nimbly from one rock to another rather than fly."
_Voice._--Except on its breeding grounds, we considered the Aleutian
sandpiper a very quiet and silent bird. Its twittering flight song is a
part of the nuptial ceremony, and it was only on its nesting grounds
that we heard the loud, musical, flutelike, whistling notes so
suggestive of the melodious calls of the upland plover. Doctor Nelson
(1887) describes what may be the same notes, as follows:
While on the wing it uttered a rather low but clear and musical
_tweo-tweo-tweo_. When feeding it had a note something like a call
of the _Colaptes auratus_, and which may be represented by the
syllables _clu-clu-clu_.
Mr. Clark (1910) also says:
The cry is loud and clear, bearing a striking resemblance to the
call of the flicker.
_Field marks._--In winter the Aleutian sandpiper might easily be
mistaken for a purple sandpiper, which it closely resembles in
appearance, haunts, and behavior, but the winter ranges of the two
species are widely separated. From the Pribilof sandpiper it differs in
being decidedly smaller, and in summer it is much darker, with less
rufous above and more black below.
_Fall._--The Aleutian sandpiper withdraws in the fall from the northern
portions of its breeding range in Alaska and Siberia, and it may be that
the birds which breed farthest north are the ones which migrate farthest
south to spend the winter, for the species is resident throughout the
year in the Aleutian Islands. In the Norton Sound region it evidently
occurs only as a migrant from northern Alaska and Siberia. Doctor Nelson
(1887) says:
Early in August, however, I was pleased to find it abundant in
parties of from five to thirty or forty about outlying islets and
along rugged portions of the shore. During each of the four
succeeding seasons the same experience was repeated, and the last
of July or first of August I was certain to find the numbers of
them in the situations mentioned, where earlier in the season not
one was to be found. They always remained until the middle of
October, when the beaches became covered with ice and they were
forced to seek a milder climate. The 1st of October, as the first
snowstorms begin, these birds desert the more exposed islets and
beaches for the inner bays and sandy beaches, where their habits
are like those of other sandpipers in similar situations.
_Winter._--This hardy sandpiper is well known to winter regularly and
abundantly in the Aleutian and Commander Islands. According to notes
received from D. E. Brown, it reaches the coast of Washington as early
as October 1, where it spends the winter in Grays Harbor and Jefferson
Counties and on the outer islands. Carl Lien's notes, from Destruction
Island, give it as a "common winter resident. A flock of probably 50
spend the winter. Nearly always found in company with turnstones and
surfbirds, and together with these birds confine themselves entirely to
the reefs."
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--The northeastern corner of Siberia, west coast of Alaska and
adjacent islands, including the Aleutians, south (rarely) to
northwestern Oregon.
_Breeding range._--The breeding range of the Aleutian sandpiper extends
north to eastern Siberia (Emma Harbor) and Alaska (Cape Prince of
Wales). East to Alaska (Cape Prince of Wales, Colville River, and Port
Moller); and the Shumagin Islands. South to the Shumagin Islands; the
western part of the Alaskan Peninsula (Muller Bay and Morzhovia Bay);
and the Aleutian Islands (Unalaska, Atka, Tanaga, Kiska, Agutta, and
Attu Islands). West to the Aleutian Islands (Attu) and eastern Siberia
(Emma Harbor). The species also has been detected in summer at St.
Lawrence and St. Matthew Islands and at other points on the mainland of
Alaska (Point Dall, Pastolik, St. Michael, Nulato, and Port Clarence).
_Winter range._--Resident throughout much of its range, but also south
in winter, along the Alaskan and British Columbian coasts and as far as
Washington (Destruction Island).
_Migration._--The migrations performed by the Aleutian sandpiper are
very limited. In the vicinity of St. Michael, Alaska, flocks will appear
as early as August 15, occasionally remaining until October 15. They
have been noted on the Asiatic side of Bering Sea at Providence Bay in
June, at East Cape in July, at Plover Bay in September, and on Bering
Island as late as October 24.
Spring migrants have been observed to reach Point Etolin, Alaska, as
early as April 8 and Bering Island April 24. Spring departures from the
southern part of the winter range have been noted as late as:
Destruction Island, May 1; Forrester Island, May 7; and Admiralty
Island, May 14. An early fall arrival at Craig, Alaska, is August 6 and
at Destruction Island October 1.
_Casual records._--This species has been collected or observed outside
of its known normal range on a few occasions: Washington, Point
Chehalis, November 6, 1917, and Dungeness Spit, March 4, 1916; Oregon,
Cape Meares, December 31, 1912, and March 18, 1913; these may prove to
be regular winter resorts.
_Egg dates._--Alaska: 18 records, June 3 to July 24; 9 records, June 15
to 22.
PISOBIA ACUMINATA (Horsfield)
SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER
HABITS
This is a bird which few of us have been privileged to see. From its
summer home in northeastern Siberia it migrates south to Japan, the
Malay Archipelago, Australia, and New Zealand. On the fall migration it
visits the coast of northwestern Alaska frequently, perhaps regularly,
and often commonly. It occurs regularly, sometimes abundantly, on the
Pribilof Islands in the fall. In southern Alaska and farther south it
occurs only as a rare straggler. A. W. Anthony (1922) took a young male
near San Diego, California, on September 16, 1921.
Some European writers have called it the Siberian pectoral sandpiper,
which its resemblance to our common bird of that name seems to warrant.
It is so much like our pectoral sandpiper in appearance, behavior, and
haunts, that it has probably often been overlooked; it may therefore
occur on our northwestern coast much oftener than we suspect.
_Nesting._--The sharp-tailed sandpiper is supposed to breed in Mongolia
and eastern Siberia; it has been seen and collected on its breeding
grounds in northeastern Siberia, Cape Wankarem, the Chuckchi Peninsula,
and the Kolyma Delta, but apparently its nest has never been found and
its eggs are entirely unknown.
_Plumages._--The downy young is entirely unknown. This sandpiper is
handsomely and richly colored in any plumage, but the rich buff and
bright browns of the juvenal plumage are particularly noticeable. The
body plumage is molted in the fall, the wings and tail in late winter,
and the body plumage is partially molted again in the spring. The
plumages are well described in the manuals.
_Food._--Preble and McAtee (1923) report on the food of this species, as
follows:
Eight well-filled and one nearly empty stomach of the sharp-tailed
sandpiper are available to illustrate the food habits. This number
is too small to furnish reliable results, and too great dependence
must not be placed in data as to the relative ranks of food items
as here stated. The percentages found for the limited material,
then, are flies (Diptera), 39.1 per cent; crustaceans, 18.1 per
cent; mollusks, 14.2 per cent; caddisflies, 11.8 per cent; beetles,
8.8 per cent; Hymenoptera, 1.8 per cent; and vegetable matter, 3.9
per cent. Mr. Hanna notes that flocks of this species frequent the
seal-killing fields, feeding on fly maggots, a statement receiving
confirmation from stomach analysis.
_Behavior._--Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) tells us a little about the habits
of this rare species, as follows:
They were nearly always associated with _maculata_, whose habits
they shared to a great extent. When congregated about their feeding
places they united into flocks of from ten into fifty, but single
birds were frequently flushed from and they were rarely shy. On
October 1, 1880, they were found scattered singly over the marsh,
and arose 30 to 40 yards in advance, and made off with a twisting
flight, uttering at the same time a short, soft, metallic _pleep,
pleep,_ and pursuing an erratic, circuitous flight for a time they
generally returned and settled near the spot whence they started.
On the shore of Siberia, near North Cape, we found these birds very
common, scattered over damp grass flats near the coast, the 1st of
August, 1881. The ground was covered with reindeer tracks, and
among these the sharp-tailed snipe were seen seeking their food.
They were very unsuspicious and allowed us to pass close to them,
or circled close about us. From their movements and other
circumstances I judged that this district formed part of their
breeding grounds, whence they reach the neighboring coast of Alaska
in fall.
_Field marks._--The sharp-tailed sandpiper most closely resembles the
pectoral sandpiper, but it can often be recognized in the field by the
more ruddy color of the upper parts. Most of the feathers of the
shoulders, scapulars and secondaries are broadly edged with chestnut;
these edgings are paler in winter. The bright chestnut crown, streaked
with black, and the ruddy brown suffusion on the chest and sides, might
be recognized under favorable circumstances.
_Fall._--Not much seems to be known about the spring migration, but the
fall migration is fairly well marked. Doctor Nelson (1887) says:
They usually make their first appearance on the shore of Norton
Sound the last of August, and in a few days become very common.
They sometimes remain up to the 12th of October, and I have seen
them searching for food along the tide line when the ground was
covered with 2 inches of snow. When feeding along the edges of the
tide-creeks they may almost be knocked over with a paddle, and when
a flock is fired into it returns again and again.
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: