49 

 BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER. {TOTANUS BARTRAMIU8, TEMMINCK.) 



BY THE REVEREND F. TEARLE. 



A SPECIMEN of this bird came into my hands on the 16th of December last, 

 having been shot on the 12th of the same month. It was purely an accident 

 which made me the owner of it, and doubtless, but for my love of ornithology, 

 it would have been carried from the field in which it was shot to the kitchen 

 of the owner of that field, where a very summary process would have for ever 

 extinguished all knowledge of Bartram's Sandpiper having been shot in that 

 neighbourhood. As a Golden Plover (and an excellent Golden Plover, too, if 

 Audubon is to be believed) it would have been sent to table, and thus have 

 furnished another instance of the ignominious end to which, no doubt, many 

 a rare and valuable species has come, through the want of a little knoAvledge 

 of one of the most interesting subjects in the world. It will aff'ord me con- 

 siderable satisfaction if the rescue of the bird from oblivion shall, through 

 the pages of The Naturalist, or in any other way, directly or indirectly, 

 contribute to the extension of our British Fauna, or to the increase of our 

 information I'egarding those it already comprises. 



The specimen was first seen by some laboui'crs engaged in thrashing, near 

 a farm yard, about ten miles from Cambridge. Its peculiar and plaintive 

 whistling cry first attracted Iheir attention, and, on watching it, they 

 observed that it frequently alighted and ran along the ground in an appa- 

 rently weak and exhausted state. For this reason one of the men fancied he 

 could catch it with his hat, and began to chase it across the field. But as 

 soon as he approached tolerably near, the bird rose and flew round in large 

 circles above him, uttering at intervals its wailing note. He soon relinquished 

 the pursuit ; but a gamekeeper's boy, who lived in a cottage close by, took 

 out his father's gun and shot it. It allowed him to approach several times 

 within gunshot before it rose. Standing erect, it seemed to watch and wait 

 for him ; then ran a shoi't distance, and stood as before — after the manner of 

 a bird that wishes to decoy an intruder from its nest. It eventually rose and 

 was brought down. 



The field had been newly ploughed ; and notwithstanding the statement 

 about its apparent weakness, I suspect it found an abundance of food, (though 

 I have been unable to ascertain of what kind), for it Avas plump and weighty 

 when brought to me. I am also unable to state its sex ; though I imagine, 

 from Audubon's plate, that it must be a female. Mr. Savill, who stuflfed the 

 bird, found it impossible to speak with certainty on this subject, owing to 

 the contused or decomposed state of the generative organs. 



The extreme length is twelve inches and a quarter; expanse of wing, 

 twenty-four inches and a quarter ; height from the top of the head, when 

 standing erect, eight inches and a half; beak, one inch and an eighth; tibia 



VOL. v. •<vSH_mI7?>^ D 



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