CHARADRIID.C 6ll 



THE SOLITARY SANDPIPER. 



ToTANUS soLiTARius (Wilson). 



A specimen of this American species was recorded by Robert 

 Gray in 'Tlie Ibis' for 1870 (p. 292), as having been killed some 

 years previously on the banks of the Clyde. In ' The Zoologist ' 

 for 1882 (p. 432), Mr. T. Cornish stated that on September 21st of 

 that year, an example, now in the collection of Mr. Dorrien Smith, 

 was shot in the Scilly Islands ; and he subsequently identified 

 another (Zool. 1885, p. 113) which was obtained in a marsh near 

 Marazion in Cornwall in October 1884, according to the sale- 

 catalogue of Vingoe's collection (May 13th 1889). These have 

 been identified by competent authorities. 



In America the " Wood-Tattler," as the bird is often called, 

 appears to be generally distributed during the breeding-season 

 from the vicinity of the Arctic circle to about lat. 44"^ N., and 

 from the Atlantic to the Lower Yukon in Alaska. Many orni- 

 thologists have observed it in summer, and Mr. Nelson has taken 

 the young when just able to fly in Illinois; yet nothing appears 

 to be known of its nidification, for the description given by the 

 late Dr. Brewer of an egg taken in Averment and ascribed to this 

 species indicates a probability of error ; while the story in ' The 

 Auk,' 1898, p. 328, of the bird being flushed (but not obtained) 

 near Lake Ontario, from 5 eggs " with grotesque brown figurings 

 somewhat similar in shape to those found on the eggs of the Purple 

 Crackle," can hardly be considered conclusive. The spring arrival 

 of the Solitary Sandpiper in the United States takes place in May, 

 while the return passage begins in July in the northern districts, and 

 even in the south few birds remain after October. On migration 

 South Greenland, the Bermudas, the Antilles, Mexico, Central 

 America, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Eastern Peru are visited. 



The Solitary Sandpiper is so named because it is generally found 

 alone or in pairs on its journeys, when it is not infrequent by pools 

 and rivulets ; but for a short time after the young are hatched small 

 family parties are formed. During the summer the bird appears to 

 be partial to small ponds surrounded by dense forest, and it then 

 resorts to decayed logs for the larvEe of insects, but at other times it 

 probes the soft mud for worms and minute crustaceans. The note 

 is a sharp whistle. 



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