Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America

The book that made American bird-watching possible in the field: keys, plumages, songs and habits for every species of the East, by the man who ran ornithology at the American Museum.

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Remarks (Any plumage this bird may be)

In any plumage this bird may be known by the peculiar speckling on the inner webs of all the primaries, and also the markings of the under wing-coverts.

Range.-"North America, especially in the interior; breeds in the Yukon SPOTTED SANDPIPER AND YOUNG.

SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. district and interior of British America; northward to the arctic coast; South America in winter; of frequent occurrence in Europe" (A. O. U.). Long Island, rare T. V., Aug. and Sept.

Eggs, three to four, buffy grayish white, varying to pale olive-buff, boldly spotted longitudinally (and somewhat spirally) with dark vandyke- or madder-brown and purplish gray, 1.53 × 1.04 (Ridgw.). This is a rare species on the Atlantic coast. Dr. Hatch writes of it as observed by him in Minnesota: "They are an extremely active species when on the wing, and essentially ploverine in all respects, seeking sandy, barren prairies, where they live upon grasshoppers, crickets, and insects generally, and ants and their eggs specially. I have found them repasting upon minute mollusks on the sandy shores of small and shallow ponds, where they were apparently little more suspicious than the Solitary Sandpipers are notably. The flight is in rather compact form, dipping and rising alternately, and with a disposition to return again to the neighborhood of their former feeding places." 263. Actitis macularia (Linn.). SPOTTED SANDPIPER. Ad. in summer. Upper parts brownish gray with a faint greenish luster, the head and neck more or less streaked, and the back barred or spotted with black; inner tail-feathers like the back, outer ones with blackish bars; under parts white, everywhere spotted with black. Im. - Upper parts brownish gray, with a greenish tinge, the back faintly and wing-coverts conspicuously barred with black and buffy; under parts pure white, unspotted, but slightly washed with grayish on the breast. Winter plumage. Similar, but back browner and without bars. L., 7.50; W., 4.20; Tar., 90; B., 95.

Range.-North America north to Hudson Bay; breeds throughout its range; winters southward to Brazil.

Washington, common T. V., not common S. R., Apl. 5 to Sept. 30. Long Island, abundant S. R., Apl. 25 to Oct. Sing Sing, common S. R., Apl. 29 to Oct. 23. Cambridge, common S. R., Apl. 26 to Sept.

Eggs, four, creamy buff or white, thickly spotted and speckled with chocolate, chiefly at the larger end, 1.25 x 95. Few Shore Birds are more generally known than this widely distributed little Sandpiper. It frequents the margins of bodies of both fresh and salt water, but is more common inland on the shores of our rivers, ponds, and lakes. During the summer it is practically our only fresh-water Sandpiper, and is familiar to most of us under its common names. It runs rapidly along the beach, then pausing bobs, bows, and "teters" in a most energetic manner. When flushed it takes wing with a sharp weet-weet weet-weet, and after a few wing-strokes scales over the water to the beach beyond. It apparently dislikes to go beyond certain limits, and after several flights makes a wide circle and returns to the starting point.

SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. 264. Numenius longirostris Wils. LONG - BILLED CURLEW;

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