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: