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 THE. CO.Ib.R Volume XlX lla--June, 1917 Number THE HOME LIFE OF THE BAIRD SANDPIPER By JOSEPH DIXON ]VITH MAP AND FIVE PHOTOS HE BAIRD Sandpiper (Pisoba bairdi) is certainly an "extremist" in its conception of the proper places at which to spend the different seasons of the year, for it breeds entirely vithin the Arctic Circle, and passes the winter in southern South America. In the United States it occurs merely as a passing migrant in spring and fall. The present author became acquainted with the species in its smnmer home during the seasons of 1913 and 1914, which he spent in the heart of its summer habitat, on the two hundred mile stretch of Arctic coast extending westward from the mouth of the Mackenzie River. Notes and photographs secured at that time are used in the following account of the bird; for permission to use this material the writer is indebted to Mr. John E. Thayer, who met the cost of the field work whereby it was obtained. He is further indebted to Mr. Thayer and to Mr. Samuel Henshaw, Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, for the photographs of the two sets of eggs (figs. 27 and 28). These specimens, taken upon this same expedition, are now in the collection of the above named institution. Specimens of the Baird Sandpiper have been taken in winter at 13,000 feet elevation in the mountains of northern Chile, in Argentina, and in Patagonia. It is said to remain in its winter home until the last of March (Cooke, Biol. Surv., Bull. 35, 1910, p. 39). When it starts on its northward journey to the shore of the Polar Sea the route followed in traversing northern South America appears to be unknown, for the species is practically lost sight of until its arrival on the Gulf coast of Texas. Here it has been reported as of common occurrence from early in March to the middle of May. The main migration route to the breeding ground may be said to lie between the eastern f. oothills of the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. There are comparatively few spring records from the Pacific Coast of North America,