The red-backed sandpiper, often called the American dunlin, arrives in flocks, the individuals of which are apparently not all mated. A female will jump up and be immediately pursued by two to five males, and as they all twist about, in and out, twittering all the time, the alternate flashing of their reddish backs and black lower parts seems like the signals of the telegraphic code. The males appear never to catch the females, but to try to keep as close to them as possible. When they alight again in the flock whence they started they at once resume feeding without further display. The thrilling song of this dainty bird is delivered while hovering with quivering wing beats in mid-air. It appears as if both male and female carry on the vocal effort, which sounds something like the cheery tinkling of ice in a glass, and ends with a real lover's note _dear, dear, dear_. This is repeated again and again and is one of the pleasant characteristic songs of the marshy grass-woven flats, where the discords of waterfowl prevail. After the fastest male has captured his elusive sweetheart the two retire to their chosen place on the flats to take up their more serious duties. Here the female lays her eggs, often in a situation that is moist, and never very far from a small pond or slough. _Nesting._--The same observer says of the nest: The home of the red-backed sandpiper is almost always found on a dry eminence in the widespread grassy tidelands, where, near some pool under the damp matted vegetation of the previous year, sufficient concealment is afforded. Here in a mere depression in the ground, still frozen underneath, a fragile nest is hurriedly made of dry grass stems and filled, rather than lined, with the tiny crisp leaves of the berry-bearing plants, that are deposited by the flood tides of autumn in this area. The range of measurements of 25 nests is: Inside diameter, 3-1/2 to 4 inches; inside depth 2 to 3 inches; total depth, 3 to 5 inches. This sandpiper is among the early nesters, we having taken the first completed set of eggs on May 29, while by June 1 we had discovered 75. The middle of June found the downy young bursting forth, dainty creatures clad in black and brown with markings similar to those of the other sandpiper chicks. Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1900) found this species breeding on the Arctic coast of Alaska, about 20 miles northeast of Cape Prince of Wales, on June 27 and 28; he writes: