SCOLOPACID^ — THE SNIPE FAMILY — BARTRAMIA. 



295 



Montagu kept several of these birds in continemeut a number of years. In this 

 condition the malt^s took no other notice of the females than to drive them from the 

 food ; invariably quarrelling with each other, but taking no notice of other species, 

 and feeding in perfect amity out of the same dish with Land-Rails and other birds 

 conhned with them. 



When the Rheeves, as the females are called, begin to lay, both they and the Ruffs 

 are least shy, and are easily caught. The females lay their eggs during the first 

 or second week in May, and their young are sometimes hatched out as early as June 

 3. The nest is usually placed on a slight elevation in moist, swampy places, sur- 

 rounded by coarse grass, of which material it is chiefly made. The eggs are four in 

 number, have an olive ground-color, and are marked with spots and blotches of umber 

 and liver-brown. They are of an oblong pyriform shape, and measure 1.60 inches in 

 length by 1.09 inches in their greatest breadth. The young, which are prettily 

 spotted when covered with down, soon leave the nest, and are difficult to find without 

 a good dog. 



Gekus BARTRAMIA, Lesson. 



Bartramia, Lesson, Traite d'Orn. 1831, 553 (type, B. laticauda, Less., = Tringa longicauda, 



Bechst. ). 

 Adidiirus, Bonap. Saggio, etc., 1831, li3 (type, Tringa Bartramia, Wils., = Tringa longicauda 



Bechst.). 

 Euliga, Nutt. Man. IL 1834 (same type). 



Char. LTpper mandible grooved laterally to within the terminal fourth, the lower not quite 

 so far. Culnien concave to near the tip, where it is slightly decm-ved ; gonys straight. Mouth 

 deeply cleft, almost as far back as the anterior canthus. The culmen only about two thirds the 

 commissure, shorter than the head or tarsus, and about equal to middle toe without claw. Feath- 





B. longicauda. 



ers extending much farther forward on the upper jaw than on the lower, although those of chin 

 reach nearly to end of nostrils. Tarsus one and one half times middle toe and claw ; the bare 

 part of tibia not quite equal to the middle toe above ; outer toe united at base as far as first joint ; 

 web of inner toe very basal. Tail long, graduated, more than half the wings. 



