Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska, St. Paul Island, September 14; British Columbia, Chilliwack, September 11, and Okanagan Landing, September 15; Washington, Nisqually Flats, November 14; Oregon, Portland, September 7, Netarts Bay, September 11, and Tillamook, September 15; Montana, Corvallis, September 7; Utah, Ogden, October 8; Colorado, Denver, October 3, and Barr, October 5; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, September 4, and Rosetown, September 6; Manitoba, Aweme, September 26, and Margaret, October 3; North Dakota, Grafton, September 22; South Dakota, Forestburg, September 21, and Lacreek, September 29; Nebraska, Nebraska City, October 10, and Lincoln, November 11; Oklahoma, Copan, October 16; Minnesota, Lanesboro, September 15; Iowa, Emmetsburg, September 23, Keokuk, September 24, and Marshalltown, October 12; Ontario, Kingston, September 29, Ottawa, October 12, and Point Pelee, October 15; Michigan, Detroit, October 6; Ohio, Columbus, October 22, Youngstown, October 29, and Cleveland, November 9; Illinois, De Kalb, October 9; Missouri, Courtenay, November 9; Tennessee, October 23; Nova Scotia, Pictou, October 8; Quebec, Montreal, October 20; Maine, Lewiston, October 16; Massachusetts, Lynn, October 4, Taunton, October 7, and Woods Hole, October 30; New York, Sayville, October 6, Ithaca, October 12, Canandaigua, October 14, and Branchport, October 28; Maryland, Back River, November 3; and District of Columbia, Anacostia River, November 27.
Casual records.—The least sandpiper has on a few occasions been detected outside of its normal range. Among these occurrences are: Chile (no definite locality [Salvin]); Greenland (Disko Fjord, August, 1878, Noursoak Peninsula, spring of 1867, and Frederikshaab, July, 1857); England (Cornwall, October 1853, and September, 1890, and Devonshire, September, 1869, and August, 1892); and northeastern Siberia (Belkoffsky, July 23, 1880, and Plover Bay, August 13, 1880).
Egg dates.—Magdalen Islands: 79 records, June 3 to 30; 40 records, June 8 to 17. Labrador and Newfoundland: 13 records, June 7 to July 1; 7 records, June 15 to 25. Arctic Canada: 14 records, June 14 to July 8; 7 records, June 27 to July 1.
PISOBIA SUBMINUTA (Middendorff)
LONG-TOED STINT
HABITS
I prefer the above name, as adopted by Robert Ridgway (1919), to the Check List name, damacensis, as it seems to have more certain application. The status of the species and its nomenclature is fully discussed by Dr. Leonhard Stejneger (1885).
This is one of several Asiatic species that have gained places on our list as stragglers to Alaska. A specimen of the long-toed stint was taken by Dr. Charles H. Townsend on Otter Island, in the Pribilofs, on June 8, 1885, constituting the only North American record. As the species migrates regularly through the Commander Islands to Kamchatka, it would not be surprising if careful collecting in the western Aleutians showed it to occur frequently in North American territory. Its close resemblance to some other small sandpipers might easily cause it to be overlooked. Very little seems to be known about its habits.
Spring.—Doctor Stejneger (1885) says:
The long-toed stint arrives at Bering Island in large flocks during the latter part of May, and are then met with on sandy beaches, where the surf has thrown up large masses of seaweed, busily engaged in picking up the numerous small crustaceans, etc., with which the weeds abound. Most of the birds stay only a few days, going further north, while a small number remain over summer, breeding sparingly on the large swamp behind the village. My efforts to find the nests were unsuccessful, but I shot birds near Zapornaja Reschka on the 17th and 22d of June, and on the 7th of August.
W. Sprague Brooks (1915) reports birds seen or taken at points in Kamchatka on May 21 and 25, 1913, which probably were just arriving on their breeding grounds.