April 30, September 22 and October 7 and November 27. New Zealand,
Canterbury, February 3, 1902; April 5, 1903 (2); Otago, March, 1903;
Grenada (Wells); Bering Island (Steller). There are several records for
this species for North America, some dating back to the earlier days of
American ornithology. In some cases the details are indefinite and can
not be considered as absolutely trustworthy. Among the occurrences
recorded are: Lesser Antilles, Grenada (Cory, 1892), and Carriacou
(Clark, 1905); New Jersey, Great Egg Harbor, two in the spring of 1829,
Long Beach, Barnegat Bay, July 29, 1904, and Tuckerton and Cape May
(Stone, according to C. C. Abbott, 1868); New York, nearly a dozen
specimens at Fulton market secured on Long Island (Giraud, 1844), Long
Island (?) June 9, 1891; Shinnecock Bay, May 24, 1883; Connecticut, near
Hartford, October 3, 1859, New Haven, August 30, 1886, and June, 1874;
Massachusetts, Cape Ann, fall of 1865, East Boston, early May, 1866,
Nahant, about 1869, Ipswich, about 1875, Cape Cod, about May 10, 1878,
and Chatham, August 26, 1889; Maine, Scarboro, September 9, 1875 (?),
and Pine Point, September 15, 1881; New Brunswick, Grand Manan; Nova
Scotia, Halifax, October, 1864, and September, 1868; Ontario, Toronto,
about 1886 (Fleming); and Alaska, Point Barrow, June 6, 1883.
_Egg dates._--Full clutches on North Taimyr, June 24; Liakhof Isles,
June 24; Taimyr, July 1 (incubated) and July 6 (fresh); Yenesei delta,
July 3 and July 7.
EURYNORHYNCHUS PYGMEUS (Linnaeus)
SPOON-BILL SANDPIPER
HABITS
This unique little sandpiper has a very restricted breeding range in
extreme northeastern Siberia, whence it migrates to southern Asia and
wanders very rarely to extreme northwestern Alaska. Joseph Dixon (1918)
says: "There are but three specimens claimed to have been taken in North
America, as far as known to the author, with some doubt attached to the
locality of capture of one of these." He has shown that the bird
supposed to have been taken on the Choris Peninsula, Kotzebue Sound,
Alaska, by Captain Moore, of the British ship "Plover," was really taken
in northeastern Asia in 1849, and that no authentic record for North
America has been established since that time until 1914. He says
further:
The only well-established occurrence of the spoonbilled sandpiper
in America is that vouched for by Fred Granville, of Los Angeles,
California, who, on August 15, 1914, took two specimens at
Wainwright Inlet, on the Arctic coast of Alaska. One of these
specimens, a female, is now number 3552 in the collection of A. B.
Howell, of Covina, California, while the other, a male, is number
1698 in the collection of G. Willett, of Los Angeles.
Referring to the capture of these two birds, he quotes from Mr.
Granville's letter of January 9, 1918, as follows:
On August 15, 1914, I and my assistant hiked back of Wainwright to
what I judged to be a distance of about 10 miles, traveling in a
northerly direction. The tundra where I found the spoonbills was
interlaced as far as the eye could see with little lagoons and long
channels of water, and in this territory I collected the two
spoonbills. These birds were shot out of a flock of possibly 10. I
followed them for about an hour before I could get a shot at them.
The birds would run along the tundra en masse and were undoubtedly
gleaning food from the moss. The minute they would catch sight of
me they would fly out of shotgun range. There were about six birds
that looked to me through field glasses to be in markedly different
plumage from the birds I shot. These six birds, immature as I
supposed, seemed to be of a solid color, and that a dark gray. On
the first shot fired, with which I got two, the birds flew across a
lake and I lost track of them, though I spent four or five hours
looking for some more. I believe that these birds breed in the
neighborhood of Wainwright and hope that at some close future date
some one will bear out my statement.
_Spring._--There is an adult male in nuptial plumage in the British
Museum, which was taken at Shanghai, China, in April. The only other
information we have about the spring migration is the following brief
statement by Dr. E. W. Nelson (1883):
On the northeast coast of Siberia Nordenskiold records this bird as
occurring in such numbers that on two occasions in spring it was
served upon their mess table on board the "Vega" while they were
lying frozen in at their winter quarters. It arrived in spring at
Tapkau, with the first bare spots, early in June, and disappeared
in July. To the westward, in the same vicinity, during the summer
of 1881, I saw several of these birds, and at Plover Bay, on the
Bering Sea shore of the same coast, secured a fine adult female in
breeding plumage, taken on June 26. Nothing peculiar was observed
in its habits, and I approached the bird without difficulty or its
showing the slightest concern as it stood on the flat at that
place. The bird was first seen feeding in the shallow water at the
edge of a pool, and then stood with its head drawn back and without
paying the slightest attention to me until it was shot.
_Courtship._--Mr. Dixon (1918) has made a thorough study of this species
and has given us a fine account of its interesting song flight,
illustrated by a diagram, from which I quote, as follows:
The song and nuptial flight of the male spoonbill, attractive as
they were to the collector, in sight of such rare birds at last,
were as elusive as a will-o'-the-wisp. In fact we were never able
to locate a female spoonbill on the nest, and I have always
believed that our lack of success in this regard was due to the
warning given by the male. Upon approaching the nest site, while we
were yet afar off, we were greeted by the male in full song. This
song, ventriloquial, pulsating, and cicadalike in quality, seemed
to come first from one and then from another point in the heaven
above. Sometimes we searched the sky altogether in vain, but
usually the bird was discovered in rapid flight at an altitude of
two or three hundred feet above the earth. The nuptial flight
consists of momentary poises alternating with rapid dips. When the
bird hovers or poises, the rapid beating of the wings is
accompanied by a fine, rhythmical, pulsating, buzzing trill,
_zee-e-e, zee-e-e, zee-e-e_, rapidly repeated. Following this the
bird approaches the intruder, swinging down in a sharp curve until
10 feet lower than the previous hovering point, where he again
poises on rapidly beating wings, pouring forth anew his insistent,
musical trill. After repeating this performance four or five times
the songster sweeps down in a long graceful curve until he almost
touches the earth near his brooding mate, then curving off, he
turns and rises rapidly and almost perpendicularly until almost out
of sight. From this new point of vantage the whole performance is
repeated. After four or five such excursions, in each of which the
intruder is approached from a different direction, the guardian of
the nest descends by raising his wings nearly vertically until they
form in anterior outline the letter V. The bird thus gliding on
motionless wings drops lightly but quickly to earth, uttering the
_zee-e-e_ in a richer yet more subdued tone. As soon as he touches
the earth the song ceases and the silent bird trots quietly off
over the moss, where his trim form blends with the lichen and mossy
tussocks, so that, upon remaining motionless, he disappears with
amazing rapidity. Time and time again we thus lost sight of the
birds, which we later discovered by the aid of binoculars to be
standing or squatting motionless within 50 feet of us. Although
this "fading out" method of exit is commonly employed by many shore
birds, in the case of the spoonbilled sandpiper it seems to have
been developed to an extreme degree.
_Nesting._--To F. E. Kleinschmidt is due the credit for finding the
first nest of the spoonbill sandpiper near Cape Serdze, northeastern
Siberia, on July 15, 1910. The nest and the four eggs, which were nearly
hatched, are now in the collection of Col. John E. Thayer. The following
extract from Captain Kleinschmidt's letter in regard to it was published
by Colonel Thayer (1911):
I was in hopes that I could get five or six clutches of the
spoonbills, so I took all kinds of chances with my boat in the ice
on the Siberian coast. I found, however, but one set of eggs and
they were just ready to hatch. The male is the parent bird of the
eggs, but the female belongs to neither eggs nor downies, simply
because the habits of this sandpiper are similar to those of the
phalarope. The male has to stay at home, keep house, and attend to
the young, while the female thinks she has done all that is
necessary by merely fulfilling the duties nature demands of her,
namely, the laying of the eggs. I shot the female in close
proximity of the nest, but we never found a female with the
downies. It was always the male. Although our observations were
limited to but a few, still I believe the male solely attends to
the hatching and the rearing of the young. The female also is
larger than the male. The nest as well as the downies were found on
the gentle slope of the tundra, bordering small fresh-water ponds.
The nest was a rounded hollow in the moss, thickly lined with dry
willow leaves. The downies blend so perfectly with the color of the
moss that the closest scrutiny will scarcely reveal their hiding
place.
Mr. Dixon (1918) found a nest, with two fresh eggs, near Providence Bay,
Siberia, on June 22, 1913, and one, with three young just hatched, near
Cape Serdze, on July 17, 1913. Regarding his experience with it, he
writes:
The two nests of this bird that came under the author's observation
were discovered through flushing the brooding male. The birds were
very shy, and as there was no cover other than a thin growth of
grass about 6 inches high approach by stealth was difficult. The
birds usually sneaked off while the observer was 40 or 50 yards
distant, and in order to find the nest it was necessary to hide, as
best one could, near the place where the sandpiper had flushed,
until it returned again to the nest. In one instance a depression
partly filled with water was the only available hiding place.
Fortunately for the watcher the water was not cold and the male
bird returned in 12 minutes to the nest, which contained two
_fresh_ eggs. The nest of this sandpiper was found to be merely a
cavity scratched out among the dead grass blades. It was a shallow
affair placed where the grass grew thickest. On June 22, 1913, at
Providence Bay, the writer witnessed the construction of a nest
from a distance of about 40 feet. The bird, a male, scratched and
then picked at the dead and matted grass blades and moss until he
had dug out quite a hole. Then he squatted down in the depression
and twisted about, pressing against the moss that formed the sides
of the nest, until a cavity about 3-1/2 inches in diameter and an
inch deep was formed. Dead leaves from a creeping Arctic willow
that grew in the moss near-by were used to line the nest.
There are two sets of eggs, one of three and one of two, in the United
States National Museum, taken by Louis L. Lane, at Cape Serdze in June,
1912, but no further data came with them.
_Eggs._--The small sets referred to above were probably incomplete;
doubtless four eggs is the normal set. The six eggs in the Thayer
collection are subpyriform in shape and have a slight gloss. The ground
color is uniform in all of them; it is between "cinnamon buff" and "dark
olive buff," or a warm shade of the latter. Three eggs are finely
speckled all over, only a little more thickly at the larger end, with
light browns, "tawny" and "snuff brown"; one egg is heavily blotched at
the larger end with "Verona brown" and "warm sepia," and only sparingly
spotted elsewhere.
J. H. Riley tells me that the eggs taken by Louis Lane vary in ground
color from a warm tint of "dark olive buff" to "deep olive buff." The
set of two is rather evenly but not heavily marked over the surface with
small blotches, dots, and scrawls of two shades of "bister," with a few
shell markings of "drab" here and there over the surface. One egg of the
set has the "bister" markings larger and thicker on the large end. The
other set has the spots larger and heavier at the large end, and in two
eggs they are darker, "clove brown" or even "blackish brown." The shape
is subpyriform.
The measurements of these 11 eggs average 30.4 by 21.8 millimeters; the
eggs showing the four extremes measure =33= by 22.8, 30.5 by =23.3=,
=28.7= by 20.8, and 29.3 by =20.3= millimeters.
_Young._--Regarding incubation and care of the young, Mr. Dixon (1918)
writes:
Regarding the time required for incubation, we have only
circumstantial evidence to offer, but our observations lead us to
believe that about 18 or 20 days elapse between the time the last
egg is laid and the first young hatched. The most striking fact in
the domestic life of the spoonbilled sandpiper is that the major
portion of the household duties, aside from the actual laying of
the eggs, is performed by the male and not the female bird. In
addition to our own observations, Kleinschmidt also has found this
to be the case. In the author's experience, none of the several
females taken were found on or within 50 feet of the nest. It is
possible, however, that they may have been warned by the male birds
and had sneaked off before we were close enough to detect their
leaving. In the unequal division of domestic duties conditions
among the spoonbills are similar to those among the phalaropes,
where the male, after he has been courted and won by the larger and
more brilliant female, takes upon himself almost all of the
household cares. However, in the case of the spoonbilled sandpiper
there is nothing to show that the female does the courting,
although she is the larger of the two. The female spoonbill is thus
seemingly content to merely lay the eggs, while she lets the male
build the nest, incubate the eggs, and take care of the young. In
corroboration of the latter statements, the author observed a male
bird building a nest at Providence Bay, Siberia, June 22, 1913;
another male was flushed repeatedly from a nest containing two
fresh eggs near the same place, on the same day, while a third male
was found tending three downy young at Cape Serdze, Siberia, on
July 17, 1913.
On July 17, 1913, at Cape Serdze, Siberia, while strolling along
the spongy green turf beside a fresh-water pond, my attention was
attracted by the "broken wing" antics of a spoonbilled sandpiper.
Although my eyes remained "glued" on the spot from which the bird
arose, no nest or sign of young could be found when I reached the
place. Soon a second bird, presumably the female, arrived on the
scene. Both appeared much concerned, and from their actions I felt
sure that there were young near by. A careful search of the short
grass, which was not over 2 inches high, failed to reveal any
living creature. I therefore retired to a grassy mound about 20
yards away and awaited developments. Both parent birds, giving
their alarm notes, circled about overhead, where they were soon
joined by a pair each of Eastern least and Temminck's stints. The
two pairs of stints were later found to have broods of downy young
in the grass on the opposite shore of the lagoon near by. Soon both
spoonbills flew off across the lagoon and disappeared, but the male
returned promptly, alighting quietly near the margin of the pond.
Here he stood motionless for nearly a minute, and then trotted
through the grass directly to the spot from which I had first
flushed him. At this point he stood still for another full minute,
during which time he looked all around, seemingly to make sure that
the coast was clear. Having satisfied himself that no active enemy
was in sight he stepped forward and bending over uttered a soft
call in a low tone, _plee-plee-plee_. This call was repeated a
second time, and instantly there arose directly in front of him a
tiny mouse-like brown form, seemingly rising from out of the very
ground. With tottering unsteady steps the downy young sandpiper
stumbled and fell toward the parent, who continued calling and
encouraging it. Upon my sudden appearance the old bird gave a quick
warning note and at this signal the youngster squatted motionless
with neck stretched forward on the ground. Although I knew the
exact spot where it disappeared, it was some time before I was able
to locate the tiny form, so well did it blend with the clump of
reddish moss upon which it had squatted. A careful search revealed
no other young sandpipers, so I returned to my hiding place. This
time I had to wait longer for the male to return, and while I was
waiting a second sandpiper, which I believed to be the female,
arrived but did not go near or call the young. Two or three minutes
elapsed this time between the return of the male and the giving of
the low call notes, when, as before, another downy young quickly
arose at the signal and toddled over to its parent. After this
second experience I was forced to change my hiding place, as the
male sandpiper refused to return to the young until I moved. He
seemed much concerned upon this last visit, probably realizing that
it was high time the young should be hovered and warmed.
I could not understand why all the young had not risen at once in
answer to the parent's call, but I noticed that he had in each case
gone up to within less than two feet of the one in hiding, and then
with lowered head facing the chick, gave the call note. In each
case it was the youngster thus directly addressed that responded to
the signal and arose. The note of the young was a low rusty squeak,
scarcely audible to human ears. It was very similar to the note of
the young semipalmated sandpiper. As far as my observations went,
there was no attempt on the part of the parent to feed the young,
and it is my belief that from the time they are hatched the young
spoonbills hunt their own food. The exercise thus gained was found
in the case of young semipalmated sandpipers to be essential to the
health of the chicks. In addition to keeping warm by running about
the young spoonbills are hovered and warmed at regular intervals by
the parent. The brood mentioned above had survived a fairly severe
snowstorm on the preceding day.
_Plumages._--The most remarkable thing about the downy young spoonbill
sandpiper is the well developed spoon-shaped bill, even when first
hatched. As will be seen by referring to Colonel Thayer's (1911)
excellent colored plate, this is much shorter than the adult bill and
the spatulate tip is more oval. The crown, back, rump, wings, and thighs
are variegated with black, white, "ochraceous tawny" and paler buffs,
dotted with white terminal tufts on the head, which form two white
stripes from the eyes to the nape, and dotted with both white and buff
tufts on the back and rump; the forehead, a superciliary stripe, the
sides of the head, the throat, and the neck are "warm buff"; the rest of
the under parts are white; a median frontal stripe, a loral stripe, and
a malar spot are black.
The juvenal plumage I have never seen. Birds collected on the southward
migration are apparently all in winter plumages; young birds are
distinguishable from adults at this age. For descriptions of first
winter and subsequent plumages I would refer the reader to Ridgway's
Birds of North and Middle America. I have not studied sufficient
material to work out the seasonal molts, but they are apparently similar
to those of other small sandpipers of the genus _Pisobia_.
_Food._--The food of the spoonbill sandpiper seems not to have been
definitely determined, but Mr. Dixon (1918) watched a pair feeding, of
which he says:
Our observations disclosed no peculiar advantage attending the
singular shape of this sandpiper's bill, though careful watch was
kept to see just how this member was used. On July 17, 1913, a pair
of spoonbilled sandpipers was watched for half an hour as the two
birds fed within 50 feet of the observer, concealed behind a sandy
dune. Their favorite feeding ground was a fresh-water pond with a
fringe of green algae about the sandy border. Under these
conditions the birds used their bills, as any other sandpipers
would, as probes to pick out insects or larvae from the algae.
Occasionally one would hesitate a moment, when the vascular tip of
the mandible quivered slightly as though the bird were straining
something out of the green algae. At this time the bill was held at
nearly right angles to the surface of the water; it was never used
as a scoop along the surface.
_Behavior._--I must again quote from Mr. Dixon (1918), who has furnished
most of our information about this little known species. Referring to
behavior and recognition marks he writes:
In color, size, and actions the spoonbilled sandpiper closely
resembles the Eastern least stint (_Pisobia minuta ruficollis_),
the marked similarity between them resulting in both the author and
his fellow collector W. S. Brooks, failing to distinguish between
the two species until June 20, after we had been among them for
some days. Although the spatulate tip of this bird's bill is very
noticeable when viewed from directly above or below, it is not a
character which can be advantageously used to identify the species
in the field, for the simple reason that in nearly all close views
of the living bird only lateral or frontal aspects of the bill are
obtained. Even when a bird was feeding, and the bill was observed
under the most favorable conditions, the peculiar shape was not
nearly as conspicuous as one would expect. In the author's
experience, the most reliable method of identifying the bird in the
field was by noting the glint of light that was reflected from the
broad tip of the upper mandible when the sunlight struck the bill
at a certain angle. Even in flight the bird could often be
identified by this faint beam of reflected light. We found that the
sandpiper had a decided preference for the grassy margins of
fresh-water ponds, while single birds were frequently found feeding
along the algae-bordered rims of tundra pools. Sandy lagoons where
rivers entered the bay were favored by them as well.
_Fall._--The same writer outlines the fall migration, based on birds in
the British Museum, as follows:
An adult male, still in summer plumage, was taken August 8, at the
mouth of the Amur River in southwestern Russia. An immature was
secured on October 8 at Hakodadi (Hakodate), Japan, while an adult
female was collected at Rangoon, India, on December 1.
_Winter._--In their winter home in India, according to Doctor Nelson
(1887) "these birds frequent the muddy flats at the mouths of rivers,
sand bars, and the seashore, where, with the various species of
_Tringa_, they always find an abundant harvest of food deposited by the
receding tide."
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Eastern Siberia, south in winter to southern China and India;
casual in Alaska.
_Breeding range._--The spoonbilled sandpiper has been found breeding
only along the Arctic coast of northeast Siberia (Cape Wankarem,
Pithkaj, Cape Serdze, near Koliuchin Island, and Providence Bay).
_Winter range._--The winter range of this species appears to be mainly
on the coasts of India (Rangoon, Akyab, Tenasserim, and the Arakan
coast).
_Migration._--Specimens have been collected at Shanghai, China, in April
and it seems to arrive on its breeding grounds early in June (Emma
Harbor, Siberia, June 6). An early date of fall arrival is indicated by
a specimen from the mouth of the Amur River, southwestern Russia, taken
on August 8, while a late date of fall departure is October 8, at
Hakodadi, Japan.
_Casual records._--A specimen of this sandpiper has been reported as
taken on the Choris Peninsula, Alaska, in 1849 (Harting, 1871), but
subsequent investigation (Dixon, 1918) indicates that the bird was
probably taken on the Siberian side of Bering Strait. Two specimens
were, however, taken near Wainwright Inlet, on August 15, 1914 (Dixon,
1918).
_Egg dates._--Siberia: 2 records, June 22 and July 15.
EREUNETES PUSILLUS (Linnaeus)
SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER
HABITS
_Contributed by Charles Wendell Townsend_