November, upon which occasions bushels of them are said to have
fallen to a single gun. During these great flights the flocks were
accustomed to follow the outside beach of the peninsula (having
presumably come directly across the lake) to its southeastern
extremity, thence crossing over to the sand beach east of the mouth
of Mill Creek, where, after having been sadly depleted by dozens of
guns, they would finally rise high in the air and pass southward
over the mainland, flock following flock, all day long. I know this
by hearsay only, but am positive that this is the bird that used to
arrive in such numbers late in the fall. On October 29, 1897, I
killed 53 of these birds out of two flocks, comprising in all
perhaps as many more, and this is the nearest approach to a flight
that has occurred of late years.
The redbacks do not reach the Massachusetts coast in any numbers until
the last week in September and the main flight comes in October, with
some lingering into November and a few remain all winter occasionally.
While with us they frequent the ocean beaches and salt-water mud flats,
where they associate with sanderlings, ringnecks, peep, and turnstones.
During high tides they rest on the high, sandy beaches in the large
flocks of other small waders. They fly in close flocks, low over the
water. The adults which come first, have nearly completed the body molt
when they arrive here.
_Winter._--It is only a short flight farther to their winter homes on
our southern coast. Dr. Louis B. Bishop (1901) found this to be "the
most abundant sandpiper" on Pea Island, North Carolina, in winter.
Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says that it usually arrives in South Carolina
about the first week in October and remains until May 25. "With the
exception of the western sandpiper, this species is the most common of
all the waders that winter on the coast. It is a very hardy bird and is
apparently not inconvenienced by a temperature of 6° above zero." We
found it common all winter on the coastal islands and mud flats on the
west coast of Florida. Mr. Nichols says in his notes:
Where met with on its winter range in northwest Florida it
apparently shifted its feeding grounds with high or low water, at
the particular locality in mind, more or less dependent on the
wind. When offshore winds caused low tides and extensive mud flats,
it was less numerous; when the water was high, numbers were seen
flying over the bay. They were present on inundated landward flats,
and, as the tide receded, fed along the edge of the bay near by,
wading in the water and often immersing most of the head as they
probed.
According to J. Hooper Bowles (1918) they winter farther north on the
Pacific coast than on this side. He writes:
These birds are among the last of the Limicolae to arrive in the
fall migration, often reaching Washington after many of the other
species have left for the South. They make up for it, however, by
staying with us all winter and late into the spring. On the
Nisqually Flats I have seen them in flocks of hundreds when the
marsh was a solid pack of snow and ice, the rise and fall of the
tide making sufficient feeding grounds to keep them fat and strong.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--North America and eastern Asia; casual in Central America and
the West Indies.
_Breeding range._--North to northeastern Siberia (Taimyr Peninsula,
Nijni Kolymsk, Cape Wankarem, and East Cape); Alaska (Cape Prince of
Wales, Point Barrow, Colville Delta, and Camden Bay); Mackenzie (Cape
Bathurst, Mackenzie Bay, Franklin Bay, and Baillie Island); and Franklin
(Port Kennedy). East to Franklin (Port Kennedy and Felix Harbor); and
probably eastern Keewatin (Cape Fullerton). South to probably eastern
Keewatin (Cape Fullerton); northwestern Mackenzie (Great Slave Lake and
Peel River); and Alaska (probably Nushagak and Ugashik). West to Alaska
(Ugashik, Pastolik, Hooper Bay, and St. Michael); and northeastern
Siberia (Cape Serdze, Plover Bay, and Taimyr Peninsula). The species
also has been recorded as breeding in Greenland, and on the coast of
Labrador (Okak), but the records are indefinite or otherwise
unsatisfactory.
_Winter range._--North to Washington (Dungeness Spit); Texas (Refugio
County); Louisiana (Freshwater Bayou and New Orleans); and southern New
Jersey (Anglesea). East to southern New Jersey (Anglesea, and Five-mile
Beach); Virginia (Wallops, Cobbs, Sandy, and Hog Islands); North
Carolina (Pea Island and Fort Macon); South Carolina (Port Royal and
Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah and Darien); and Florida (Amelia Island,
Tarpon Springs, and Fort Myers). South to Florida (Fort Myers); Texas
(probably Brownsville); and Lower California (La Paz). West to Lower
California (La Paz); California (San Diego, Alamitas Bay, Los Banos, San
Francisco Bay, and Humboldt Bay); Oregon (Yaquina Bay); and Washington
(Nisqually Flats, Tacoma, and Dungeness Spit).
It also has been noted in winter north to the mouth of the Fraser River,
British Columbia (specimen in U. S. National Museum); Barnstable,
Massachusetts (Howe, December 23, 1903); Long Island, New York
(Fleischer, December 25, 1914); and south to Great Inagua, Bahama
Islands (Worthington, February 3, 1909).
_Spring migration._--Early dates of arrival in the spring are: New York,
Long Island, April 3, Canandaigua, April 20, and Orient, May 7; Rhode
Island, Block Island, May 12; Massachusetts, Monomoy Island, April 13,
Rehoboth, May 2, and Boston, May 4; Quebec, Quebec, May 2; Illinois,
Addison, May 9; Ohio, Youngstown, April 18, Cedar Point, May 8, Tiffin,
May 10, and Oberlin, May 11; Michigan, Jackson, May 4, Detroit, May 13,
and Ann Arbor, May 14; Ontario, Toronto, May 12, and Point Pelee, May
13; Iowa, Sigourney, May 13; Wisconsin, Whitewater, May 1, Madison, May
10, and Elkhorn, May 13; Minnesota, Heron Lake, May 11, Waseca, May 14,
and Hutchinson, May 18; eastern Nebraska, Lincoln, May 7; South Dakota,
Vermilion, April 29, and Huron, May 6; North Dakota, Sweetwater, May 10;
Manitoba, Whitewater Lake, May 12, and Shoal Lake, May 22; British
Columbia, Courtenay, April 18, Chilliwak, April 25, and Metlakatla,
April 29; Yukon, Dawson, May 24; Alaska, Howcan, April 2, Kuiu Island,
April 28, Craig, May 1, mouth of the Yukon River, May 10, Admiralty
Island, May 14, Fort Kenai, May 16, and Point Barrow, May 31; and
Siberia, Bering Island, May 26, and Nijni Kolymsk, May 28.
Late dates of spring departure are: Florida, Gasparilla Island, May 24,
St. Marks, May 26, and New Smyrna, May 26; Georgia, Savannah, May 29;
South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, May 29; North Carolina, Fort Macon, May
22, and Churchs Island, May 26; Virginia, Pig Island, May 28; New
Jersey, Anglesea, May 20; New York, Canandaigua, May 26, New York City,
May 30, Rockaway, June 3, and Geneva, June 7; Massachusetts, Cape Cod,
May 22, and Ipswich, May 30; Maine, Scarboro, June 2; Quebec, Quebec
City, May 28; Illinois, Waukegan, May 27, Riverdale, May 31, and
Chicago, June 5; Ohio, Painesville, May 27, Oberlin, June 1, and
Lakeside, June 16; Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie, May 29, Detroit, May 30,
and Neebish Island, June 3; Ontario, Mitchell's Bay, June 1, Hamilton,
June 3, Point Pelee, June 10, and Toronto, June 13; Iowa, Emmetsburg,
May 25, Storm Lake, May 26, and Sioux City, June 4; Wisconsin, Madison,
May 27, and Green Bay, June 4; Minnesota, Lanesboro, May 30, Heron
Lake, June 2, and Wilder, June 10; Texas, Fort Brown, May 16, Dallas,
May 20, and Corpus Christi, May 29; eastern Nebraska, Lincoln, June 9;
South Dakota, Vermilion, May 24, and Forestburg, May 30; North Dakota,
Jerusalem, June 1; Manitoba, Killarney, May 28, and Shoal Lake, June 5;
California, Fresno, May 15, Santa Barbara, May 17, and Alameda, May 21;
Oregon, Beaver Creek, Lincoln County, May 18, and Silver Lake, June 4;
and British Columbia, Cowickan, May 18.
_Fall migration._--Early dates of fall arrival are: Washington, Smith
Island, August 14, and Point Chehalis, August 20; California, Santa
Barbara, September 9, Alameda, September 19, and Hayward, September 20;
Manitoba, Gimli, August 20; South Dakota, Forestburg, July 30; eastern
Nebraska, Lincoln, September 1; Minnesota, Wilder, September 16;
Ontario, Brighton, July 31, and Ottawa, August 21; Michigan, Saginaw
Bay, August 20, and Ann Arbor, September 21; Ohio, Youngstown, August
10, Pelee Island, August 15, and Cleveland, August 22; Illinois,
Chicago, July 22; Quebec, Godbout, September 7; Massachusetts, Norton,
August 26, and Taunton, September 1; New York, Orient, August 11,
Canandaigua, September 14, and Ithaca, September 24; Pennsylvania, Erie,
September 25; Maryland, Lock Raven, September 3; District of Columbia,
Washington, September 25; Virginia, Smiths Island, September 28; and
South Carolina, Mount Pleasant, September 30.
Late dates of fall departures are: Siberia, Bering Island, October 25;
Alaska, Sitka, October 10, mouth of the Yukon River, October 13, and St.
Paul Island, October 30; British Columbia, Comox, October 22, and
Chilliwack, November 29; Manitoba, Lake Winnipeg, October 31; eastern
Nebraska, Lincoln, November 7; Minnesota, Hallock, October 16;
Wisconsin, Madison, November 15; Iowa, Keokuk, October 4, and
Marshalltown, October 12; Ontario, Ottawa, October 29, and Long Point,
November 2; Michigan, Detroit, October 11, Sault Ste. Marie, October 22,
and St. Clair Flats, November 20; Ohio, Huron, November 5, Youngstown,
November 8, and Columbus, November 28; Illinois, Chicago, October 31,
Lake Forest, November 3, and La Grange, November 6; Maine, Lewiston,
October 12, and Portland, November 25; Massachusetts, Lynn, November 3,
Boston, November 10, and Monomoy Island, November 14; Rhode Island,
Block Island, November 16; Connecticut, Fairfield, November 29; New
York, Orient, November 12, and Long Beach, December 25; and
Pennsylvania, Erie, November 3.
_Casual records._--Accidental occurrences of the red-backed sandpiper
have been reported mostly from the Rocky Mountain States. Among these
are: Arizona, near Tucson, April, 1883; Nevada, Pyramid Lake, May, 1868;
and Utah, Ogden and Salt Lake City (reported in September by Allen). It
also has been reported as detected at Dominica, West Indies, October 1,
1904; and at Momotombo, Nicaragua, on May 23. (This last record
represented by a specimen in the British Museum.)
_Egg dates._--Alaska: 83 records, May 26 to July 8; 42 records, June 4
to 30. Arctic Canada: 15 records, June 5 to July 7; 8 records, June 26
to July 3.
EROLIA FERRUGINEA (Brünnich)
CURLEW SANDPIPER
_Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain_
HABITS
The curlew sandpiper is only an occasional visitor to America, and with
the exception of a single record from Point Barrow all the recorded
instances have been reported from the eastern side of the Continent. It
has been met with in Canada on two occasions, about ten times in the
Eastern States, twice in the West Indies and once in Patagonia.
_Courtship._--Very few observations on this species have been made on
its breeding grounds in eastern Siberia, so our information as to its
courtship is still very defective. The late Dr. H. Walter, during his
enforced detention on the Taimyr Peninsula, from September, 1900, to
August, 1901, while frozen in on board the exploring ship "Sarja," noted
that they arrived on the Peninsula on June 13, and from that date onward
were to be met with chasing one another in little parties of three or
four over the tundra. There is no mention of any song flight (as in
_Crocethia alba_, _Erolia temminchii_, _Arquatella maritima_, _Calidris
canutus_, etc.).
_Nesting._--The usual nesting place is on the gentle slope of the drier
tundra, where the reindeer moss is interspersed with tufts of wiry grass
and allowing a wide field of view over the neighborhood. Miss Haviland
(1915_a_) noted that the actual nest hollow was rather deep, so that the
pointed ends of the eggs were pointed downwards almost vertically.
Walter describes them as shallow depressions, lined with a few dry
bents, but H. L. Popham (1898) also remarks that "the nest was a rather
deep hollow amongst the reindeer moss in an open space on a ridge of
ground, somewhat drier than the surrounding swampy tundra, in much the
same sort of place as that generally chosen by a grey plover."
Although Middendorff undoubtedly met with birds about to breed, and
indeed extracted a partly developed egg from the oviduct of a female
which he had shot on the Boganida River in latitude 74° N., no one had
actually found the nest of this species till Mr. H. Leyborne Popham
(1898) visited the lower reaches of the Yenesei in 1897. Two years
previously (August, 1895), he had met with family parties on the delta
and had shot young which must have been reared in the neighborhood. On
July 3, 1897, finding the way below Golchika blocked by the ice, he
turned back to explore an island of soft tundra with a rocky shore. One
of his men called out that he had seen a sandpiper and at once,
according to his own words:
I sent the other two men away and lay down to watch the bird, which
stood still for some time, then flew some distance away and I lost
sight of it among some turnstones. We again saw the bird near the
same spot, so Hansen and I lay down to watch while the mosquitoes
did their worst. The bird stood for some time watching us and then
began running about; it was very difficult to keep it in sight for
it took advantage of every little hollow to run in and every little
ridge to hide behind. It then flew to another place and did the
same thing again, so I asked Hansen to get up and walk away. The
bird remained quite motionless, watching him go, and then ran
backwards and forwards and finally stopped still behind a small
tuft of grass. After waiting for some minutes I raised my head
slightly; the bird instantly flew off and stood watching, but, as
it saw nothing moving, it began running about again and settled
down in the same spot; then I felt sure I had a nest safe, but to
make doubly sure I went through the same performance again, a
shower of rain no doubt hastening matters, and this time I
distinctly saw the bird shuffle the eggs under it. I jumped up,
shot the bird as it ran away, and soon had the pleasure of looking
at the first authentic eggs of the curlew sandpiper. The bird,
which proved to be the female, remained silent throughout; at one
time I thought I heard it make a sound like a dunlin, but, as I
afterwards saw dunlins close by, I was probably mistaken.
The next news comes from the Russian explorers who wintered on the coast
of the Taimyr Peninsula in 1900-1901. In Doctor Walter's posthumous
notes he writes that the curlew sandpiper nested in numbers near his
winter quarters. The nests were placed in grassy places and by mid-June
(old style) contained full clutches. On the approach of anyone the
sitting birds, warned by their mates, left the nests quickly and both
birds remained very passive and unobtrusive. Usually a long wait was
necessary before the female returned to the nest, and often the watch
resulted in failure. Some individuals also wander about in flocks
through the breeding season, and later on young and old collect in large
flocks and stay till late in the autumn. Doctor Walter collected three
clutches of eggs here, and another Russian naturalist, Dr. Katin
Jartzew, also took several on Kotelni Island, in the New Siberian Isles,
in 1902. Since that date the only information we have received is that
furnished by Miss Haviland (Mrs. Brindley), who visited the delta of the
Yenesei in 1914. In her account (1915) of her travels she writes:
On July 6, as I was returning from a long round over the tundra
that lay in the northern angle of the Yenesei and Golchika Rivers,
all at once I saw a little rufous curlew, which was standing on a
tussock about 20 yards away, watching me quietly. When I stopped
she flew away, but soon alighted again and looked at me. Full of
excitement, but still rather skeptical as to the likelihood of
finding eggs, I lay down and watched her, but at the end of an hour
and a half I could come to no conclusion, for the bird only
strolled about and preened herself nonchalantly. I was not even
certain of her sex, and her solitude and her quiet behavior made me
doubt whether, after all, she might not be a nonbreeding bird.
Nevertheless, I marked the place and turned homeward, meaning to
come back next day. On the morrow I turned out early and tramped
over 8 swampy miles of tundra. The second pair of sandpipers were
not to be seen, but the first bird was still pottering round the
same spot. To-day she was a little more demonstrative and flew
about uneasily. Once she uttered a sharp, anxious note,
_wick-wick-wick_, two or three times repeated. By this time I was
convinced that the nest was close at hand, but it was difficult to
locate it, for although the bird could dodge me successfully enough
behind tussocks of moss only 6 inches high, my person unfortunately
was too bulky for these, the only available hiding places. The
ground was on a very gradual slope. On the right hand and on the
left were two small tarns, still covered with blue ice. In the
distance grazed some herds of reindeer, and once a Samoyede sledge
glided swiftly over a ridge. Heavy drifts of snow still lay in the
sheltered hollow, and the sleet showers that came slapping over the
tundra made me glad to wrap myself up in my Burberry coat.
The bird had whirled away round the tarn at my approach, so I hid myself
as well as I could behind a tussock and settled down to wait for her
return. Twenty minutes passed--half an hour. "It's time she was coming
back," thought I, and turned my head carefully to reconnoiter. And lo
and behold, not 30 yards behind, the sandpiper stood and studied me
contemptuously! She had been watching all the time. "What a fool!"
doubtless would have been her comment if she could have spoken. It is no
use to try and gull the waders; up to a certain point I believe that
they can almost see you _think_!
I retired abashed to another hiding place about 50 yards farther up the
slope. The bird at once showed her appreciation of this move by flying
toward the spot where I had first seen her. She was so small that it was
very difficult to mark her as she tripped between the tussocks. When I
thought that she must be settled on her eggs I jumped up quickly. She
took wing at once, but when I went to the place whence she had risen
there was no sign of the nest. This happened twice; but as she returned
to the same spot each time, I knew that the treasure was there all right
and that patience would win it. I marked the bird down by a dodge that I
used when looking for gray plover's eggs under similar circumstances and
which is described elsewhere; but each time that I flushed her she
seemed to jump up from a different place. She was so little and so
nimble that she could run over the moss for some yards before she was
seen. The next time I gave her ample time to settle down and lay still
in the wet, sucking lumps of sugar until I nearly fell asleep. Then all
at once a Buffon's skua came overhead, flying low in the squally wind. I
snatched my gun and shot him as he flew by, and as he fell I saw the
sandpiper spring up from a spot where I had marked her once before. I
left the skua and ran up to the place. The bird began to call again and
drooped a wing to decoy me away. Half a minute's search and there was
the nest at my feet.
_Eggs._--The clutch consists of four eggs normally, blunt pyriform in
shape with slight gloss. Walter describes the ground as pale yellowish
white with greenish tinge and large and small blackish-brown spots, more
confluent at large end. There are also a few pale violet-gray shell
marks. They are snipelike in character, and the markings are rich and
handsome, sometimes ranging to deep rufous brown in color. Their small
size, combined with bold type of markings, renders them readily
recognizable. The measurements of 20 eggs average 36.26 by 25.67
millimeters, the eggs showing the four extremes measure =39.6= by 25.6,
37.5 by =26.4=, =33.3= by 25.3, and 36.6 by =25= millimeters.
_Incubation._--The bird which Popham shot from the eggs was a female,
but both males and females were obtained from the nests by the Russian
ornithologists, so that apparently the duty is shared by both sexes.
_Plumages._--The molts and plumages are fully described in "A Practical
Handbook of British Birds," edited by H. F. Witherby (1920), to which
the reader is referred.
_Food._--On its breeding grounds the main food of this species consists
of insects. Cordeaux has found remains of Coleoptera and Diptera and
their larvae in stomachs. Worms are also freely taken, but on migration
it is a coastal species and subsists chiefly on marine forms, such as
the small crustacea (Gammaridae) which are found in vast numbers on the
shore, minute mollusca, and vegetable matter.
_Behavior._--Even in the breeding season this species shows signs of a
sociable disposition, several pairs breeding frequently at no great
distance apart. When the young are fledged they assemble in flocks
before leaving for the south and during the winter months may be found
on the mud flats of our estuaries and flat coasts, as well as
occasionally on reservoirs and sewage farms inland. During the breeding
season it appears to be a silent bird, only a shrill alarm note,
_wick-wick-wick_, being noted, while the shore haunting flocks keep up a
long twitter.
_Fall._--The migrations of this species are very extensive, reaching
over practically the whole of the Old World. To the British Isles it is
a passage migrant, arriving from the end of July to late October and
occasionally November. In Denmark the old birds are said to arrive in
August and the birds of the year in September, leaving in
September-October. On the shores of the Baltic it occurs commonly, but
seems to avoid the extreme west of Europe on its way south, though
passing Tangier in September and occurring in small numbers in Portugal.
It is also met with on passage in all the Mediterranean countries, as
well as north Africa and passes the Canaries on migration. It ranges on
the west side of Africa to Gaboon, Liberia, the Gold Coast, Princes
Island, Loango, and south to Cape Province. While on the east side it is
recorded from the Nile Valley, the Red Sea, Sudan, Mozambique, Zanzibar,
Nyassaland, Madagascar, etc., and it occurs regularly on Mauritius. In
Asia it ranges across the continent to the Indian Ocean, the Mekran
coast, Sind, Yarkand, India, Ceylon, the Andamans Nicobars, Burmese
coast, Malacca Peninsula, Hainan, Formosa, and East China. Further, it
has been recorded from the Malay Archipelago, Java, Borneo, New Guinea,
the Philippines, Moluccas, and has also been found in Australia (West
Australia and New South Wales), Tasmania, and New Zealand. In America
there are two Canadian records, one from Toronto and one from Nova
Scotia; while in the Eastern States it has occurred in Maine,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Long Island, and has been recorded from
Grenada and Carriacou, Lesser Antilles, and also in Patagonia. In Alaska
it has once been obtained at Point Barrow.
DISTRIBUTION
_Breeding range._--The supposed instances of breeding in western
Greenland are now discredited, and the only definitely known breeding
places are in eastern Siberia, from the delta of the Yenesei to latitude
74° on the Taimyr Peninsula and northward, as well as on the Liakhof
Isles and other islands of the New Siberian group.
_Spring migration._--Dates: Rio de Oro (N. W. Africa), April 27;
Gibraltar, April 24; Egypt, May 8; Barcelona and Santander, May; Malaga,
May 9; Corsica, May 7, 8, and 16; Italy, April 1-June 5: Malta, May 7,
12, 13, 27; Greece, April 15, 28, but chiefly May; Corfu, passage lasts
till end of May; Transylvania, May 29; Cyprus, May 20, 24; Lake Baikal,
May; Allaliabad, May 17; Amoy, China, May 16; Archangel, June 18;
Boganida River, May 27; arrives North Taimyr, June 4.
_Fall migration._--Dates: Belfast, Ireland, August 25 to end of
September; Portugal, September; Italy, September 15-October 30; Cyprus,
September 2; Greece, arrives September; Tangier, September; Yarkand,
August-September; Karachi, September; Gilgit, August-September;
Selangor, August; Mergui Archipelago, November 6; Ceylon, October; Lower
Pegu, August; Transvaal, November 24; Natal, October 18.