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

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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 2 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. [AukLOct. 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 birds from 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 north- eastern 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.
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