-SCOLOPACID.E — THE SNIPE FAMILY — MICROPALAMA. 203 



The Stilt Sandpiper occurs as a migrant in the interior, especially in the spring. 

 Professor Kumlien has procured it in Southern Wisconsin, and the Natural History 

 Society of Boston have received from him several fine specimens in the breeding- 

 plumage. Professor F. H. Snow, of Lawrence, Kansas, informs us that some six or 

 eight specimens were taken in that neighborhood in September, 1874. 



Richardson refers to this species as the Douglas Sandpiper, and mentions that it 

 is not imcommon in the Pur Country up to, and probably beyond, the GOth parallel. 

 It frequents the interior in tlie lu-eeding-season, and resorts to the flat shores of Hud- 

 son's Bay in the autumn, previous to taking its departure south. It Avas found by Mr. 

 MacParlane breeding on the Arctic coast. This species is said by Leotaud to be a 

 never-failing visitant of Trinidad, Avhere it arrives early in August, and, like nearly 

 all the other migratory Waders, leaves in October. It keeps apart from other 

 species, or only associates with the Totrmus flavi^yes, which it is said to resemble in 

 its habits and movements. It is also given, in the list published by Mr. Lawrence, 

 as one of the birds observed by Mr. A. A. Julien, on the Island of Sombrero, West 

 Indies. 



According to Giraud, this species, known on Long Island as the Long-legged Sand- 

 piper, is not common there. In all his excursions he only obtained two individuals, 

 both of which proved to be males. These were shot in a large meadow lying on the 

 South Bay, and known as Cedar Island. The first he procured in the latter part of 

 August, 1840 ; the other in the early part of September in the following year. In 

 both instances the birds were in company with a single Pectoral Sandpiper. The 

 first he shot before it alighted, and had no opportunity to observe its habits. The 

 second alighted among liis decoys while he was lying at a salt-pond in the meadow. 

 It walked about with an erect and graceful gait, occasionally stooping to probe the 

 soft mud for worms and minute shelliish, particles of which, on dissection, he found 

 in its stomach. After spending a few minutes within reach of his gun, it became sud- 

 denly alarmed, uttered a shrill note, and took wing ; as it passed from him he brought 

 it down. An experienced Bay -man, who Avas on the meadow at the time, informed 

 Mr. Giraud that, in the course of many years' shooting, he had met with only a few 

 stragglers, and had always looked upon them as hybrids. Although somewhat 

 resembling in plumage the Eed-l)reasted Snipe, the two are so unlike in size, that 

 Mr. Giraud regards it as hardly possible that they could ever be mistaken for each 

 other. As he several times found these birds in the New York market — from six to 

 eight on a string — it is very evident that wandering flocks occasionally visit the 

 shores of Long Island. 



Mr. Dresser states that shortly after his arrival at Matamoras, while out shooting 

 at the lagoon, he procured a specimen of this Sandpiper, which was then quite new 

 to him. During his stay at Matamoras he shot several more Stilt Sandpipers, meeting 

 with them far oftener as the different kinds of birds of this family began to arrive 

 from the north, and generally flnding them in company with the Macrorhamphus 

 fjriseus. When out hunting Snipe, on the 20th of November, 1863, near San Antonio, 

 he shot another of these birds. 



Mr. Audubon states that on the 4tb of April, 1847, on the Island of Barataria, forty 

 miles from the southwest pass of the Mississippi, he saw a flock of about thirty 

 Long-legged Sandpipers alight, within ten steps of him. near the water. They soon 

 scattered, following the margin of the advancing and retiring waves in search of food, 

 which they procured by probing the wet sand in the manner of the Curlews. They 

 inserted the full length of their bills in the sand, holding it there for some little time, 

 as if engaged in sucking up what they had found. In this way they continued feed- 



