6o4 bartram's sandpiper. 



another obtained at Malta on November 17th 1S65 by Mr. C. A. 

 Wright, who afterwards presented it to the Museum at Florence. 

 In America this species breeds from Virginia northward to Nova 

 Scotia, and even as far as Fort Yukon, Alaska ; while it has been 

 recorded from Colville Bay, British Columbia, though otherwise 

 unknown to the west of ' the great divide.' In Canada it is par- 

 ticularly abundant on the plains of the Saskatchewan ; and in the 

 United States it is generally distributed from Pennsylvania and 

 Illinois westward to the foot of the Rocky Mountains, though not 

 very numerous nowadays (according to Mr. Cory) on the Atlantic 

 coast. On the spring migration large flocks pass through Kansas, 

 Nebraska, Minnesota and Dakota ; while the return passage south- 

 ward commences as early as July and continues during the autumn ; 

 extending to the Bermudas, the Southern States, Mexico and the 

 West Indies, as well as through tropical America, to Argentina on the 

 east side and Chile on the west. 



Hilly grass-lands are the favourite haunts of this bird, for 

 which reason it is known in the United States as the Upland-, 

 Field- or Grass-Plover. The nest is a mere hollow — often in a 

 ploughed field — with only a few grass stems or leaves to keep the 

 eggs from the damp soil ; these, 4 in number, and laid early in 

 June, are pinkish clay-colour blotched with pale purple and umber- 

 brown : measurements rS by i"35 in. Only one brood is reared in 

 the year, and the young are somewhat helpless and clumsy. The 

 note is a soft mellow whistle, whence the bird derives its Louisiana 

 name of "Papabot." The food, which consists of beetles, grasshoppers 

 and other insects, small snails, earth-worms &:c., appears to be very 

 fattening, and in autumn the bird is much prized by epicures. 



The adult in summer has the crown blackish, with a median line 

 of buff, feathers of the upper parts edged with warm buff, and 

 thickly streaked and barred with black ; inner web of ist primary 

 white, with conspicuous dusky bars ; tail (long and wedge-shaped 

 when closed) pale orange-buff barred with black and broadly 

 tipped with white, except the central pair of feathers which are chiefly 

 ash-brown ; neck and breast buff, with blackish arrow-shaped mark- 

 ings on the lower breast ; chin, belly and vent white ; axillaries and 

 under-wing barred with ash-brown and white. Length 1 1 '5 in. 

 (bill I "2), wing 6'6 in. The female is slightly larger than the 

 male. In winter the plumage has an ochraceous tint ; while 

 immature birds have the feathers of the back more margined with 

 rufous-buff than the adults. It will be observed that the tail is barred 

 as in Totanus, and is not plain as in Tringa. 



