The Nesting Grounds and Nesting Habits of the Spoon-Billed Sandpiper

THE AUK:

A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF

ORNITHOLOGY.

VoL. xxxv. OcToBrR, 1918. No. 4.

THE NESTING GROUNDS AND NESTING HABITS OF THE SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPER. •

BY JOSEPH DIXON.

Plate V.

TaE Spoon-billedSandpiper (Eurynorhynchuspygmmus) is essentiallyan Asiatic species. There are but three specimens claimed to have been taken in North America, as far as known to the author,with somedoubt attachedto the locality of captureof oneof these,which fact probablyindicates that the occurrenceof the bird in North America is irregular or casual. If the species nestson the Arctic shoresof Alaska, or even habitually visits the region,it is reasonableto believethat the presenceof so peculiar a bird would have beendetected by more of the naturaliststhat have collectedalong the Alaska coastbetween Bering Strait and Point $ arrow. The Spoon-billedSandpiper appears to be unknown to the AmericanEskimo, for the author was unable to find one among those interviewedwho recognizedit when skins were exhibited. On the other hand the "Chuckchies" of northeastern Siberia are familiar with the species,calling the bird by name when shown specimens. The speciesis includedin the A. 0. U. ' Check-List'as a North

Contributionfrom the Museum of VertebrateZo51ogy x of the University of Cali- fornia. 387 THE AUK, VOL. XXXV. PLATE

1. Breedinggrounds of Spoon-billedSandpiper at ProvidenceBay, Siberia, showingice conditionsJune 21, 1913. Two nestsof the Sandpiperwere found at points near middle and at extremeleft of photograph. 2. Nest and eggs of Spoon-billedSandpiper (in situ), Providence Bay, Siberia• June 22, 1913. 388 •)=o•-, TheSpoon-billed Sandpiper. LOct.[Auk Americanbird on the basis o• a "summer"specimen taken by Captain Moore of the British Ship Plover, on Choris Peninsula, Kotzebue So.und, Arctic Alaska, during the summerof 1849 (Coues,1884, p. 78, footnote). This wasthe firstand, for many years,the only knownexample of the speciesin summerplumage, and from 1849 until 1915it was the only recordedspecimen from North America. Hence the positionof this individualspecimen hasbeen unique, and we areable to checkup discrepanciesin differ- ent publishedaccounts with the reasonableassurance that the varying statementsencountered all refer to the same bird. The first recordthat the authorhas been able to find of thisparticular specimenisin the' Proceedings'of theZoological Society of London for 1859 (p. 201) whereit is mentionedas havingbeen exhibited by Mr. Sclaterat a meetingof the Society. At that time, ten years after its capture,the bird was supposedto have comefrom the "NortheasternCoast of Asia." In 1903this same specimen seemsto haveafforded the only basisfor Coues'statement (p. 813) concerningthe species:"breeding .... on the Arctic coastof Alaska." Thehistory of thisspecimen in literature is shown on the following diagram(Fig. 1), illustratingthe relationof all subsequentpub- lishedstatements to the originalrecord in 1859,and alsohow the. supposedlocality of capturehas shifted from Asia to North America.

•soo•/•...'-J Ch•h••u. P ' •ral Be• • $ •fs Norfh_•a•fernCoasl', Alaska of Asia

Choris Peninsu|•, AJask•

Fig. l. Diagram of recordsrelative to the first known "snmm•" specimen of SpoOn- bi•ed Sandpiper showing: (1) rdation of records; (2) •adual shifting of the records • the locality of this specimen from Asia to Nor• America.

1903. Coues,p. 813. "Breedingon the easternArctic coastof Siberia,. and also on the Arctic coast of Alaska." ¾ol.1918XXX¾ I1 DIxon,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. 38•

1900. Grinnell, p. 74. "This specimenwas in summer plumage and was taken on the Choris Peninsula by Captain Moore of H. M. S. Plover in 18497 1887. Nelson,p. 112. "The presenceof this remarkablelittle Sandpiper' in the list of birds of Alaska is due to the capture of a specimen at Choris Peninsula,during the summer of 1849, by the captain of the British ship Plover- Proceedingsof •hc Zoological Society (1871, p. 110)." 1884. Coues,p. 78. "It is recordedby Harting, P. Z. S., 1871, pp. 111, 114, from Choris Peninsula,the specimensaid to have been procured there in 1849, and figured in the Ibis, 1869, p. 426, P1. XII." 1883. Nelson, p. 87. "The record of this specimenis in the proceedings of the LondonZoological Sopicty for 1871,p. 110." 1871. liarting, p. 111. "It was obtainedby Capt. Moore on the Choris Peninsula.... This'specimen was describedand figuredin ' The Ibis' for 1869, p. 426, P1. XII." 1869. liarting, p. 433. "24. One in summerplumage from •Behring's Straits,by expeditionunder Capt. Moore in H. M. S. 'Plover' (Proc.Zool. Soc.1859, p. 201). Now in new Museumat Oxford." 1859. Secretary Zool. Soc. London, p. 201. "Mr. Sclatcr exhibited specimensof two rare speciesof Arctic birdsfrom the collection of John Barrow, Esq.... One of these was the new speciesof' Diver with a white bill, describedby Mr. G. R. Gray as Colymbus adamsi.... The other was an example of the exceedinglyscarce. ]Vader wi•h a spatulated bill Eurinorhynchuspygmceus .... in what was apparently its summerdress, the head,neck and breast being rufous.... The locality of this specimenwas supposedto. be the North-eastern Coast of Asia."

The followingdata regardingthe itineraryof the Ploveron this. particularvoyage have been obtained chiefly from 'The Tentsof the Tuski' by Lieut. W. H. Hooper,an officerunder Capt. Moore- duringthis voyageof the Plover. Seeman'snarrative of the voyageof H. M. S. Herald,1845-51, also throws considerable light on this voyageof the Plover,as both shipswere sent on the same mission. The Plover and Herald were two of several ships sent out between1848 and 1852from Englandto searchfor Sir John Franklin. The Ploversailed from England in January, 1848, on this voyage(Seemann, 1853, p. 191) but beinga slowsailer did not reach her destination, ]KotzebueSound, that year. The Ploverwent into winter quartersin what is now knownas Plover Bay, a small bay within ProvidenceBay, northeasternSiberia 390 D•xo•,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

(Hooper, 1853, p. 12). The vesselremained frozen in the ice at this point from October,1848, until the last of June, 1849. Hooper (1853, pp. 206-207) states"we sailedfrom Emma's Harbor at the end of June,and proceededup Behring'sStraits, anchoring several times near the Asiatic shore, on which occasionsparties of our friendsvisited the ship. The last po'mtof contactwas the Bay of S•t.Laurence." From this point "we steeredfor Kttzebue Sound and anchorednear Cl•amissoI•land on the 14th of July." Here Lieutenant Hooper started ashore but was called back by the arrival of the Herald, and "both ships' crewswere thereforeim- mediately set to work to transfer storesand provisions. On the 18th the 'Herald' and 'Plover' weighedat an early hour." See- mann (1853,p. 193) statesthat the Ploverwas "off Wainwright Inlet on the 25th of July, 1849." She returned from her Arctic cruiseand againmet the Herald at KotzebueSound on September 2, 1849. From Simmonds(1852, p. 308) we learn that "the Plover was safelyensconced for the winter of 1849-50in Kotzebue Sound." In lookingover the ten speciesof birds, specimensof which are indicated by Harting as having been obtained on the Choris Peninsulain 1849by CaptainMoore of the Plover(Hatting, 1871, p. 114; Grinnell, 1900, p. 66), we find that the list containsno speciespeculiar to North America. However, we do find that at least two of the species(Spoon-billed Sandpiper and Mongolian Plover) are essentiallyAsiatic. To the author's knowledgeonly two other Americanspecimens of the Spoon-billedSandpiper and no other specimenof the MongolianPlover have beenclaimed to have been taken in )alaska since 1849. The Ploverand her crew winteredin 1848-49 and spentthe main portion of the breedingseason of 1849 along the coast of northeastern Siberia, the regionwhich has recently been proved to be the main breedingground of the Spoon-billedSandpiper (Brooks, 1915, p. 382). On the other hand, only four days (July 14-18, 1849) were spentat ChorisPeninsula, l•otzebue Sound,most of this time being devoted to transferringstores aboard the ships (Hooper, 1853,p. 213).• Under the circumstancesit would seem

• Mr. W. L. Sclater, Editor of' The Ibis,' was written to in regard to the presentcondition of Captain Moore's specimenof Eurynorhynchaspygmazus. At his kind solicitation, both Vol.191s XXXV] ] D•xo•, TheSpoon-billed Sandpiper. 391 that the first record(1859) was correctand that Captain•Vfoore's specimenreally did come, as first recorded, "from the North- easternCoast of Asia." The presentauthor believes this to have been the case. Two other questionableAmerican recordsof the Spoon-billed Sandpiperhave been reported. Ridgway (1881, p. 85) states: "Spoon-billedSandpiper- Point Barrow,Arctic Coastof Alaska, fide Dr. T. H. Bean." Bean (1882, p. 165), however,records a singlespecimen, secured by a native boy at Plover Bay, Siberia, "most probably late in August, 1880." Seebohm(1888, p. 441) states: "Nelson obtained a specimenin Alaska." This appears to have been an error, sinceNelson (1887,p. 112) statesthat he secureda singlespecimen at Plover Bay, on the Siberianshore in 1881 and then adds "but not another individual of this rare bird WaS seen.• The only well establishedoccurrence of the Spoon-billedSand- piper in America is that vouchedfor by Fred Granville of Los Angeles,California, who on August15, 1914, took two specimens at Wainwright Inlet, on the Arctic Coast of Alaska (referred to heretoforeonly casually,by Swarth, 1915,p. 136). 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 collectionof G. Willett of Los Angeles. Through the courtesyof thesegentlemen, the writer hasbeen enabled to examine the Granville specimensand to comparethem with a male bird taken at Cape Serdze,Siberia (no. 16699,•Vfus. Vert. Zool.), and anothermale taken.by Granville,July 12, 1914, at RussianSpit, Siberia(no. 3551, Howell coll.). Both of the Wainwrightspeci- mens,although taken the middleof August,are still in the summer plumage,with the chestmiredgings of the featherson the upper parts, and the chestnut wash on the head and throat almost as the bird and the museum recordsconcerning it have been examined by Mr. Henry Balfour, curator of the Pitt Rivers AnthropologicalMuseum at Oxford, England. The specimenis still (February, 1918) mountedand in a goodstate of preservationat the Oxford Museum, having been kept under a small bell-glassand away from strong light. No additional informationregarding the locality of captureof this specimenwas, however, forthcoming. The entry in the Catalogueof the ComparativeAnatomy Department of the University Museumat Oxfordis asfollows: "In summerplumage, obtained in BehringStrait by Capt. Moore, 1849"; while accordingto the label on the standon whichthe specimenis mounted, "This specimenwas taken in Behring Straits." 392 D•xo•, TheSpoon-billed Sandpiper. tOct.[Auk brightas in breedingbirds. The writerhas been unable to dis- coverany indicationof the fall molt in thesetwo specimens. Mr. Granvillehas given me a full accountof the circumstances under which he took thesetwo Spoonbillsat Wainwright Inlet. The followingextracts, slightly modified in wording,are fromhis letter of January9, 1918. "On August15, 1914,I and my assist- ant hikedback of Wainwrightto what I judgedto be a distanceof about ten miles,traveling in a northerlydirection .... The tundra whereI foundthe Spoonbillswas interlaced as far as the eyecould see with little lagoonsand long channelsof water, and in this territory I collectedthe two Spoon-bills.... These birds were shot out of a flockof possiblyten. I followedthem for aboutan hour beforeI couldget a shotat them. The birdswould run alongthe tundra en masseand were undoubtedlygleaning food from the moss. The minute they would catch sight of me they wouldfly out of shot-gunrange. There were aboutsix birdsthat looked to me throughfield glassesto be in markedlydifferent plumage from the birds I shot. Thesesix birds,immature as I supposed, seemedto be of a solid color and that a dark gray. On the first shotfired, with whichI got two, the birdsflew acrossa lake and I lost track of them, thoughI spentfour or five hourslooking for somemore .... I believethat thesebirds breed in the neighborhood of Wainwrightand hopethat at someclose future date someone will bear out my statement" It is a commonoccurrence for whaling and exploringvessels to visit both the Siberian and American shoresduring a summer cruisein the Arctic, hencereliability of the collectoris the only guaranteeas to placesof captureof specimensgathered on sucha cruise. Sincethe speciesunder discussionis rare on the American shore and occursin relatively much greater abundanceon its breedingground on the Siberianside, it is one regardingwhich mistakesmight easily occur. 51r. Granville,while not a well- knowncollector, has been a memberof the CooperClub for several years,and is a man whoseobservations we can acceptwithout question. The writer spent severaldays at Wainwright Inlet two weeks after Mr. Granville'sdeparture and althoughthe variousflocks of sandpiperspresent, then mostlyin winter plumage,were examined Vol.•s •L•XYJ • •xo•, • S•oo•a• s•. 393 with binoculars,no Spoon-billscould be found. The fall migra- tion was much in evidence at this time. Whether Granville's birdswere somethat had bred at Wainwright,as he supposed,or were merely stragglersfrom Siberiaafter the breedingseason, is uncertain. The true statusof the speciesat this point can only be settledby further field work at WainwrightInlet during the breeding season.

Fig. 2. Map showing summer record statious of Spoou-hilled Sandpiper.

From our presentdata, the rangeof the Spoon-billedSandpiper may be definedas follows: The breedinghabitat lies along the Arctic coastof northeastSiberia, possibly also at favorablelocali- tieson the Alaskancoast (see Fig. 2), springand fall migrationroute alongthe Asiaticshores of Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean,and winter home in southernIndia. The following record of speci- mensfrom the' Catalogueof Birdsin the BritishMuseum' (Sharpe, 1896,p. 537)affords an outline of the migrationroute of thisbird. An adult male,still in summerplumage, was taken August8, at the mouth of the Amur River in southwestern Russia. An immature 394 DIxoN,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. [oct.Auk was securedon October8 at Hokodadi[Hakodate], Japan, while an adult female was collectedat Ragoon,India, on December1. The springmigration is representedby an adult male in summer plumagetaken in April at Shanghai,China. Althoughthis bird hasbeen known for ninnyyears, at leastas far backas the time of Linnaeusin 1764(Harting, 1869, p. 428), it was only the winter plumage with which ornithologistswere familiar. The summer dress was unknown until 1849, when Captain Moore of the Plovertook his singlespecimen. The breedingground of this specieswas not definitelyknown until JohanKoren found youngSpoon-billed Sandpipers able to run on July 24, 1909,on the mainlandnear Koliuchin Island, northeast Siberia. Koren alsotook a half-fledgedyoung on July 28 or 29, 1909, at Cape Wankarem about seventymiles west of Koliuchin Island (Koren, 1910, pp. 14-15). To John E. Thayer, we are indebtedfor the first publisheddescription of the nest and eggs of this rare wader,based upon a nestwith four eggsand the male parent,together with eightdowny young, secured by CaptainF. E. Kleinschmidtat Cape Serdze,northeast Siberia, July 15, 1910. This article,published in 'The Auk' for April, 1911,was illustrated by coloredplates of theeggs and the headand bill of thedowny young and adult stages. Nordenski61d(1881, p. 43) reportsthat birds of this species appear.edin numbers in Junenear the winter quarters of the Vega. This localitywas n[ar the eastshore of KoliuehinBay. Norden- ski61d,however, discovered no evidenceof the speciesbreeding at this point and it was nearly thirty yearslater that Koren found youngSpoon-billed Sandpipers in this region. The presentauthor met hisfirst living Spoon-billed Sandpiper at ProvidenceBay, Siberia(see Plate V, Fig. 1) the middleof June, 1913, when upon an ornithologicalcruise in the Arctic in the interestsof JohnE. Thayer,who haskindly permittedthe useof suchnotes and materialas wereneeded in the preparationof this article. In color, size and actionsthe Spoon-billedSandpiper dosely resemblesthe EasternLeast Stint (Pisobiaminuta ruficollis), the marked similaritybetween them resultingin both the author and hisfellow collector W. S. Brooks,failing to distinguishbetween the Vol.1918 XX_XV] ] D•xo•,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. 395 two speciesuntil June 20, after we had been amongthem for some days. However,despite our initial failure to securethe birds,it is my beliefthat the Spoon-billbegins to arriveon its breedinggrounds by the end of the first week in June. A pair of sandpiperswas encounterednear the east shore of Emma Harbor, in Providence Bay, on June 6, 1913,which evidentlybelonged to this species. The malewas at this time energeticallyengaged in his characteristic nuptial songflight while the femalefed quietly amongthe tussocks nearthe edgeof a pondon the tundra. Althoughthe spatularetip of this bird's bill is very noticeable when viewed from directly above or below, it is not a character which can be advantageouslyused to identify the speciesin the field, for the simplereason that in nearly all closeviews of the living bird only lateral or frontal aspectsof the bill are obtained. Viewedfrom the sidS,as shownin Thayer'sillustration (loc. cit., Plate II, Fig. 5), the bill is not sufficientlypeculiar in outlineto be distinguishedfrom thoseof other small sandpipersat any great distance. Even when a bird was feeding, and the bill was ob- servedunder the mostfavorable conditions, the peculiarshape was not nearly as conspicuousas one would expect. In the author's experience,the most reliablemethod of identifyingthe bird in the field was by noting the glint of light that was reflectedfrom the broadtip of the uppermandible when the sunlightstruck the bill at a certainangle. Even in flight, the bird couldoften be identified by this faint beam of reflectedlight. Our first specimenwas collectedon June20, suspicionhaving been directed to this particu- lar bird by seeingthe sunlightreflected from the tip of the bill, as above described. We found that the Sandpiperhad a decidedpreference for the grassy margins of fresh-water ponds, while single birds were frequentlyfound feedingalong the algae-borderedrims of tundra pools. Sandylagoons where rivers enteredthe bay were favored by them as wall. The songand nuptial flight of the male Spoon-bill,attractive as they wereto the collector,in sightof suchrare birdsat last, wereas dusiveas a will-o'-the-wisp. In fact we were never able to locate a femaleSpoon-bill on the nest and I have always balieyedthat ourlack of successin this,regard was due to the warninggiven 396 DIXON,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Aul•Oct.

by the male. Upon approachingthe nest site, while we wereyet afar off, we were greetedby the male in full song. This song, ventriloquial,pulsating, and eieada-likein quality, seemedto eome first from one and then from another point in the heaven above. Sometimeswe searehedthe sky altogetherin vain, but usuallythe bird was dlseoveredin rapid flight at an altitude of two or three hundred feet above the earth.

Fig. 8. Dia•ams • •he nuptial fligh• of •he Spoon-bffi• Sandpiper. Upper represen• •he •gh• as viewed from •ove. Lower fi•re depicts one hMf of •he arno evolution as seenfrom one side. (s) s•a•, (a) Poise or hover aeeompaffi• b7 song, (b) short dip (no rang), ½) rapid sweep down over n•t si[e, ending in new posi•on, (• glide •o e•[h, (X) nest site on •undm. FBgh• e to et in upper fi•re • repr•ented b7 broken 1•o e • e• in •he lower figure. •Vol,191SXXXVI J D•xo•,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. 397

Thenuptial flight consists of momentarypoises alternating With rapid dips (Fig. 3). When the bird hoversor poises,the rapid beatingof the wingsis accompaniedby a fine,rhythmical, pul•ating, buzzing trill: ze&e-e,ze•-e-e, ze•-e-e, rapidly repeated (Fig. 3a). Followingthis the bird approachesthe intruder,swinging down in a sharp curve until ten feet lower than the previoushovering point (Fig. 3b) wherehe againpoises on rapidlybeating wings, pouring forth anew his insistent,musical trill. After repeatingthis per- formaneefour or five times, the songstersweeps down in a long gracefulcurve (Fig. 3e) until he almost touchesthe earth near his broodingmate, then curving off, he turns and risesrapidly .andalmost perpendicularly until almost out of sight. From this new point of vantagethe whole performanceis repeated. After four or five such excursions,in each of which the intruder is approachedfrom a differentdirection, the guardianof the nest descendsby raising his wings nearly vertically until they form in anterior outline the letter V. The bird thus gliding on motionlesswings drops lightly but quickly to earth, uttering the ze&e-ein a richer yet more subduedtone (Fig. 3d). As soonas he touchesthe earth the songceases and the silent bird trots quietly off over the moss,where his trim form blendswith the lichenand mossytussocks so that, upon remainingmotionless he disappearswith amazingrapidity. Time and again we thus lost sight of the birds, which we later discoveredby the aid of binoculars,to be standingor squattingmotionless within fifty feet .of us. Although this "fading out" method of exit is commonly employedby many shorebirds, in the easeof the Spoon-billed •Sandpiperit seemsto have beendeveloped to an extremedegree. The two nests of this bird that came under the author's observa- tion were discoveredthrough flushingthe broodingmale. The birdswere very shy and as there was no coverother than a thin growth of grassabout six incheshigh, approachby stealth was difiqeult(see Plate V, Fig. 2). The birdsusually sneaked off while the observerwas forty or fifty yardsdistant, and in orderto find the nestit wasnecessary to hide,as bestone could, near the placewhere the sandpiperhad flushed,until it returnedagain to the nest. In one instancea depressionpartly filled with water was the only available hiding place. Fortunately for the watcher the water 398 Drxo•,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. [AukLOct. was not cold and the male bird returned in twelve minutes to the nest,which contained two fresheggs (Plate V, Fig. 2). The most striking fact in the domesticlife of the Spoon-billed Sandpiperis that the major portion of the householdduties, aside from the actual laying of the eggs,is performedby the male and not the female bird. In addition to our own observations Klein- schmidtalso has found this to be the case. He states: "Although our observationswere limited to but a few, still I believe the male solelyattends to the hatchingand rearingof the young" (Thayer, 1911, p. 154). In the author's experience,none of the several femalestaken were found on or within fifty feet of the nest. It is possible,however, that they may have beenwarned by the male birds and had sneakedoff before we were closeenough to detect their leaving. In the unequaldivision of domesticduties conditions among the Spoon-billsare similarto thoseamong the Phalaropeswhere the male, after he has been courted and won by the larger and more brilliant female, takes upon himselfalmost all of the household cares. However,in the caseof the Spoon-billedSandpiper there. is nothing to showthat the femaledoes the courtingalthough she. is the largerof the two. Mr. Thayer in commentingon the relative sizeof the sexesstates: "In lookingover my seriesof fourteen skins,all adults,I find that the femalesare largerand their mandi- bles noticeablyso" (Thayer, 1911, p. 154). The female Spoon- bill is thus seeminglycontent to merelylay the eggs,while shelets the male build the nest, incubatethe eggs,and take care of the. young. In corroborationof the latter statements the author observeda male bird building a nest at ProvidenceBay, Siberia, June 22, 1913, another male was flushedrepeatedly from a nest containingtwo fresh eggsnear the sameplace on the sameday, while a third malewas found tending three downyyoung at Cape• Serdze,Siberia, on July 17, 1913. The nest of this Sandpiperwas found to be merely a cavity scratchedout amongthe deadgrass blades. It wasa shallow affair placedwhere the grassgrew thickest(Plate V, Fig. 2). On June 22, 1913, at ProvidenceBay, the writer witnessedthe con- structionof a nest from a distanceof about forty feet. The bird, a male, scratchedand then picked at the dead and matted grass ¾ol.191s XXXV] I DixoN,The Spo, on-billed Sandpiper. 399 blades and moss until he had dug out quite a hole. Then he squatteddown in the depressionand twistedabout, pressing against the moss that formed the sides of the nest, until a cavity about three and one-halfinches in diameterand an inch deepwas formed. Dead leavesfrom a creepingArctic willow that grew in the moss nearby, were usedto line the nest. We have the following data regarding the dates at which the eggs are laid and the number of eggs in a set. A clue is also affordedas to the time requiredfor the eggsto hatch.

Locality Date Nesting evidence ' Collector Providence Bay, Siberia June 22, 1913 2 fresh eggs in nest; J. Dixon Providence Bay, Siberia June 22, 1913 Nest; in course of construe- J. Dixon •;ion Cape Serdze,Siberia July 15, 1910 4 eggs"just; read7 to hatch" F. E. Kleinschmidt Cape Serdze, Siberia July 17, 1913 8 young just; out of nest J. Dixon

From the above data it seemsprobable that the set is of three or four eggs;June 20 to 25 may be taken as the time whenlaying begins. The eggsof the Spoon-billfound by the author at Provi- denceBay werenot markedlydifferent in markings,shape or color from those of other small sandpipers,such as the Eastern Least Stint. In the field, the eggs of the Spoon-billedSandpiper ap- pearedto be slightly larger than thoseof the Stint. The measure- ments of the four eggs collectedby Kleinschmidt are given by Thayer (1911, p. 154) as follows: "1.20 X .92; 1.22 X .90; 1.20 X .88; 1.30 X .90 inches." For positive identification, we found it advisableto securethe parent bird with the eggs,and in order that there might be no mistake, the incubatingmale was securedjust as he jumped from the nest. Regarding the time required for incubation, we have only circumstantialevidence to offer (see precedingtable), but our observationslead us to believethat about eighteenor twenty days elapsebetween the time the last egg is laid and the first young hatched. On July 17, 1913, at Cape Serdze,Siberia, while strollingalong thespongy green turf besidea'fresh-water pond, my attentionwas attracted by the "broken wing" antics of a Spoon-billedSand- piper. Although my eyes remained "glued" on the spot from which the bird arose,no nestor signof youngcould be foundwhen 400 Dixon,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. [Oct.[Auk

I reachedthe place. Soona secondbird, presumablythe female, arrived on the scene. Both appeared much concernedand from their actionsI felt sure that there were young near by. A careful searchof the short grass,which was not over two incheshigh, failed to revealany living creature. I thereforeretired to a grassy mound about twenty yards away and awaited developments. Both parentbirds, giving their alarm notes,circled about overhead, where they were soonjoined by a pair eachof EasternLeast and Temminck'sStints. Tl•e two pairsof stintswere later foundto have broodsof downy young in the grasson the oppositeshore of the lagoonnear by. Soonboth Spoon-billsflew off acrossthe lagoon and disappeared,but the malereturned promptly, alighting quietly near the margin of the pond. Here he stoodmotionless for nearly a minute, and then trotted through the grassdirectly 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, seeminglyto make surethat the coastwas clear. Having satisfied himselfthat no active enemywas in sighthe steppedforward and bending over uttered a soft call in a low tone "plee-plee-plee." This call was repeated a secondtime, and instantly there arose directly in front of him a tiny mouse-likebrown form, seemingly risingfrom out of the very ground. With totteringunsteady steps the downy young sandpiperstumbled and fell toward the parent, who continuedcalling and encouragingit. Uponmy suddenappearance, the old bird gave a quickwarning note and at this signalthe youngstersquatted motionless with neck stretchedforward on the ground. AlthoughI knew the exactspot where it disappeared,it was sometime before I was able to locate the tiny form, so well did it blend with the clump of reddishmoss upon which it had squatted. A careful searchrevealed no other young sandpipersso I returned to my hiding place. T}•is time I had to wait longerfor the male to return and, while I was waiting, a secondsandpiper which I believedto be the female arrived but did not go near or call the young. Two or three minuteselapsed this time betweenthe return of the male and the giving of the low call notes, when as before anotherdowny young quickly aroseat the signaland toddledover to its parent. After this secondexperience I was forcedto change Vol. 19•-8XXXV] J D•xo•,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. 401 my hiding place, as the male Sandpiperrefused to return to the young until I moved. He seemedmuch concernedupon this last visit, probablyrealizing that it was high time the young shouldbe hovered and warmed. I couldnot understandwhy all the younghad not risenat once in answer to the parent's call but I noticed that he had in each easegone up to within less than two feet of the one in hiding, and then with loweredhead facing the chick,gave the call note. In each easeit was the youngsterthus directly addressedthat respondedto the signaland arose. The note of the youngwas a low rusty squeak,scarcely audible to human ears. It was very similar to the note of the young SemipalmatedSandpiper (see Dixon, 1917, p. 190). As far as my observationswent, there was no attempt on the part of the parentto feed the young,and it is my beliefthat from the time they are hatchedthe young Spoon-billshunt their own food. The exercisethus gainedwas found in the easeof young SemipalmatedSandpipers to be essentialto the health of the chicks. In additionto keepingwarm by runningabout the young Spoon-billsare hovered and warmed at regular ifitervals by the parent. The broodmentioned above had surviveda fairly severe snowstormon the precedingday. An effort was made to carry the three downy Spoon-billsback to the ship alive, and as we had "hopped, skippedand jumped" ashoreover a mile of driftingice cakes,the packingwas done with care. A thick nest of cotton was made in the collectingbasket, but within an hour the young sandpipersbegan to go into con~ vulsionsand although they were placed inside of the author's "parka" next to his body, they all soondied. Their death seemed to be due to lack of exercise,as they were kept warm, and cer- tainly could not have starved to death in an hour. Manniche (1910,p. 146) reportsa similarexperience with two downyyoung of the Sanderling,on the breedinggrounds of this speciesin northeast Greenland. As has beenpointed out by Thayer (1911,p. 154), the bill of the newly hatched young of this Sandpipershows the characteristic "spoon" well developed. The narrow part of.the bill of a downy youngSpoon-bill is short comparedwith that of the adult, while 402 DIXOn,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. [oct.Auk the spatularetip is more oval, as comparedwith the angularout- line of the bill of the adult bird. In outline the bill of the young closelyresembles the conventional"spade" on playingeards. Our observationsdisclosed no peculiaradvantage attending the singularshape of this sandpiper'sbill, thoughcareful watch was kept to seejust how this memberwas used. On July 17, 1913,a pair of Spoon-billedSandpipers was watchedfor half an hour as the two birdsfed within fifty feet of the observer,concealed behind a sandy dune. Their favorite feedingground was a fresh-water pondwith a fringeof greenalgae about the sandyborder. Under these conditionsthe birds usedtheir bills as any other sandpipers would,as probesto pickout insectsor larvaefrom the algae. Occa- sionallyone would hesitate a moment,when the vasculartip of the mandiblequivered slightly as thoughthe bird werestraining some- thing out of the greenalgae. At this time the bill was held at nearly right anglesto the surfaceof the water; it was never used as a scoopalong the surface. The width of the tip of the bill variesgreatly in freshlykilled specimens,regardless of sex,as shownat time of captureamong the twelvespecimens we secured. Of two malesat hand,one (Mus. Vert. Zool.no. 16699)has a bill with a width of 11.6mm., while the other (Willerr eoll.,no. 1698)measures only 9.4 mm. in width. Comparativelylittle seemsto be knownregarding the develop- ment and molt of the young of this species. Koren found young ableto run abouton July 24, 1909,on the mainlandnear I(oliuchin Island. On July 29 at Cape Wankaremhe found young "half fledged"and got one of theseon the wing at fifty yards. Gran- ville, as previouslydetailed, saw what he thoughtwere six immature birds of this speciesin the gray or winter plumage at Wainwright Inlet, Alaska, on August 15, 1914. In spite of the considerableaccumulation, during recent years, of data relative to the nestinghabits of this peculiarspoon-billed wader, there are many importantfacts in the life historyof this speciesyet to be ascertained. Vol. 191sXXX¾] J D•xo•,The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. 403

LITERATURE CITED. B•,•, T. H. 1882. Notes on birds collectedduring the summer of 1880 in Alaska and Siberia. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 5, pp. 144-173. BROOKS,W. S. 1915. Notes on birds from east Siberia and Arctic Alaska. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 59, pp. 361-413. Cove,s, E. 1884. [Reviewof] Nelson'sBirds of Bering Seaand the Arctic Ocean. Auk, 1, pp. 76-81. 1903. Key to North Americanbirds. (Boston, Page), 5th ed., 2, pp. vi -•- 1152, profuselyillustrated. D•xo•, J. 1917. Children of the midnight sun. Bird Lore, 19, pp. 185-192, 10 figs. in text. GRINNELL, J. 1900. Birds of the Kotzebue Soundregion. Pacific Coast Avifauna, 1, pp. 1-80, i map. HART•NG,J. E. 1869.On rare or little-known Limicol•e. Ibis, 5, pp.426-434, 1 pl• and 1 fig. in text. 1871. Catalogue of an Arctic collection of birds presented by Mr. JohnBarrow, F. R. S., to the UniversityMuseum at Oxford; with notes on the species. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1871, pp. 110-123, 2 figs. in text. HOOTER, W. H. 1853. Ten monthsamong the tents of the Tuski. (London,Murray), pp. xv •- 417, i pl., 10 figs. in text, i map. KOREN, J. 1910. Collectingon Tchonkotsk Peninsula. The Warbler, 6, pp. 2- 15, 19 figs. in text. Mz_m•c•,, A. L. V. 1910. The terrestrial mammals and birds of north-east Greenland. Danmark-Ekspeditionen Til Gr•bnlandsNordostkyst 1906- 1908, K•bbenhavn,Bianco Lunos Bogtrykkeri, Bind. V. Nr. 1, pp. 1-199, pls. I-VII, 43 figs.in text., i map. N•,•,so•, E. W. 1883. Birds of Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean. Cruise of Revenue Steamer Corwin in Alaska and the north west Arctic Ocean in 1881 (Washington, Govt. Printing office), pp. 55-118, 4 pls. 1887. Report upon natural history collectionsmade in Alaska between the years 1877 and 1881. Arctic Seriesof Publica- tions issued in connectionwith the Signal Service, U.S. Army, 3, 337 pp., 21 pls. 404 DIXOI%The Spoon-billed Sandpiper. [Auk[oct.

I•TORDEIq'SKIOLD,A. E. 1881. The voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe. (London, Macmillan Co.), 2, pp. xvii q- 464, with 5 steel portraits, numerous maps and illustrations. RIDGWAY,R. 1881. Nomenclature of North American birds chiefly contained in the U.S. National Museum. Bull. lJ. S. Nat. Mus., 21, pp. 1-94. S•ESOHM, 1888. The geographicaldistribution of the family Charadriida•or the plovers, sandpipers, snipes and their allies. (London, Sotheran),pp. xxiv q- 524, 21 pls., many unnumberedfigs. in text. SEEMANN,B. 1853. Narrative of the voyage of tI. M. S. Herald 1845-51. (Lon- don, Reeves),2, pp. vii q- 302, 1 pl. SHXRrE, R. B. 1896. Catalogue of the Limicol•e in the collectionof t.he British Museum. 24, pp. xii q- 794, 6 pls., many figs. in text. SIMMOIN'DS,1D. L. 1852. Sir John Franklin and the Arctic regions. (Buffalo, Derby), pp. xvii q- 396, many illustrations,1 map. SWARTH,t•. S. 1915. Minutes of meeting of Cooper Ornithological Club. Condor, 17, p. 136. SECRETZdlY ZOOL. Soc. LOI•DOI•. 1859. [Report of Meeting of May 10, 1859.] Proc. Zoo]. Soc. Lon- don, 18õ9, p. 201. THAYER, J. E. 1911. Eggs of the Spoon-billSandpiper (Eurynorhynchus pygm•eus), Auk, 28, pp. 153-155, 2 pls.