WATER BIRDS. 195 



Often when standing quietly otherwise it will jerk its head and body stiffly 

 upward and back again, precisely as if moved by a hiccough. 



It reaches southern ^Michigan the last week in April or the first in May, 

 disappears by the first of June, returns from the north during the latter 

 half of July and soon moves southward, although stragglers linger into 

 or even through September. During the fall of 1906 this species was com- 

 mon at Lansing all through September, and 6 or 8 were seen October 3. 

 In the northern half of the state a few remain all summer, and it is very 

 likely that an occasional pair may nest even in the southern counties. 



Singularly enough its nesting habits remain totally unknown, and al- 

 though several collectors claim to have taken the eggs, there is no unques- 

 tionable specimen in any museum or private collection so far as we know. 

 An egg is said to have been taken from a nest on the ground, at Lake 

 Bomaseen, Vt., by Jenness Richardson, May 28, 1878 (Bull. Nutt. Club, 

 III, 1878, 197); Dr. C. K. Clarke claims to have found a nest and eggs on 

 Simcoe Island, Lake Ontario, June 10, 1898 (Auk, XV, 328, 329) ; and more 

 recently Walter Raine records the taking of three sets of eggs in northern 

 Alberta, one set in the summer of 1903, the other two in 1904, by Evan 

 Thomson, one of his collectors (Oologist, XXI, 1904, pp. 165-167). The 

 eggs from Alberta were taken from olcl nests of the Cedar Waxwing and the 

 Robin, placed in trees several feet above the ground; the Vermont and 

 Simcoe Island eggs were from nests on the ground. For one reason or 

 another no one of these records is entirely satisfactory and it remains for 

 some reliable ornithologist to clear up the mystery surrounding the nesting 

 of this species. There is a growing belief that it always nests in trees, 

 using the deserted nest of some other bird, a habit unknown in any American 

 Sandpiper, but said to be the rule with the European Green Sandpiper, H. 

 ochropus, which very closely resembles our bird. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill slender, straight, black, longer than the head; legs and feet greenish black. Advilt 

 in summer: Olive-brown above, with a greenish cast, dotted or speckled with white; 

 lower throat, chest, and sides of breast streaked with dusky; rest of imder parts pure white; 

 axillars barred with black and white; middle tail-feathers like the back, but spotted with 

 white along the margins; other tail-feathers with about five narrow bars of black, the 

 interspaces and tips white; primaries black with a purplish gloss, none of the shafts white 

 on the upper side. Adult in winter: Similar, but with fewer white markings above, and 

 the dusky streaks of throat and chest less distinct; a dark loral stri])e, bordered above by 

 a short white stripe. Young: Grayer about the head and nock, the top of head, back, 

 and scapulars, thickly marked with dots of rusty or buff. Length 7.50 to 8.(30 inches; 

 wing 5 to 5.40; culmen 1.15 to 1.30; tarsus 1.25 to 1.90. 



108. Bartramian Sandpiper. Bartramia longicauda (Bechst.). (261) 



Synonyms: liartram's Tattler, T pland Plover, Field Plover, Prairie Pigeon. Prairie 

 Plover.— Tringa longicauda, Bechst., 1812.— Tringa Bartramia, Wils., Aud., Nutt.— 

 Totanus Bartramius, Temm. — Actiturus Bartramius, Bonap. 



Plate X. 



The bill is too short for the ideal sandpiper and too long and slender 

 for a plover. The lengthened tail, and the outer primary sharply barred 

 with black and white are good recognition marks. 



Distribution.— North America, mainly east of the Rocky Mountains, 



