BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER. 565 



Bartram's Sandpiper {Actitiirus bartramiiis); not from close 

 structural affinity, indeed, for the last mentioned is a true 

 Sandpiper, or still more properly a Tattler, but from the 

 fact that I have so often found it breeding in some adjoin- 

 ing locality. On the whole, Bartram's Sandpiper is a much 

 more upland bird than the Killdeer. Its nest may be 

 found even in dry, sandy fields, hence it is often called the 

 Field or Grass Plover. Notwithstanding its grallatorial 

 structure, it seems almost utterly to have forsaken the 

 water, and to have become naturalized to the meadow 

 and the pasture, along with Bobolinks and Sparrows. 

 I generally find it on the rather high level grounds just 

 north of the Ridge, which determines the famous Ridge 

 Road of Western New York, but sometimes even on the 

 Ridge itself. 



About 12-13 inches long and 22 or more inches in extent, 

 with the rather long bill and legs peculiar to the Tattlers 

 (the bill being less sensitive in that group than in the Sand- 

 pipers), Bartram's Sandpiper has the crown dark-brown, 

 with a median line of light reddish-brown; upper parts 

 generally a rich dark-brown, with black markings or bars 

 running obliquely across the vanings, the edges or tips of 

 the feathers being brownish or reddish-white; the lower 

 back clear brown, deep and glossy; neck, breast, and vent, 

 cream-color; under parts, yellowish-white; the neck streaked 

 with brown; pointed cross-markings on the breast, and the 

 straighter cross-bars on the sides and axillaries, deep brown 

 or black; outer primaries with much dull white on the in- 

 ner vanes; wing-coverts quite light, crossed with brown; 

 and the long tertiaries deeply edged with light brown, into 

 w^hich the black markings point conspicuously; legs, yellow- 

 ish. The most elegant part of this bird is the tail, which 

 shades from dark-brown in the center, through various tints 



