396 



BARTRAMIA LONGICAUDA (Coues). 

 BARTRAM'S TATTLER : FIELD PLOVER. 



Specific Character. — Bill about as long as the head, rather wide and flattened 

 at the bases, lightly curved at the tip ; nostrils with a large membrane ; nasal 

 groove, long ; wings, long ; tail, long for this group ; legs, moderate or rather 

 loner ; lower half of the tibia naked ; toes, moderate, the outer and middle united 

 by a membrane, inner and middle free to the base ; hind toe, small ; above, gray- 

 ish brown, the feathers paler and more ochraceous towards their edges, spotted 

 and barred with black ; head and neck, except throat, streaked with blackish ; 

 crown, blackish, divided by a mesial line of buff ; throat, belly and crissum, plain 

 buffy white ; axillars, pure white and clear dusky slate in regular bars of nearly 

 equal width ; tail feathers, except middle pair, creamy buff" broadly tipped with 

 white, crossed by a broad subterminal black spot, and with a few irregular narrow 

 bars anterior to this ; outer webs of primaries, plain dusky slate ; the inner webs 

 with wide transverse bars of white on the outer quill, on the others broken into 

 a confused mottling. Rump and upper tail coverts, nearly uniform blackish ; the 

 outer feathers of the latter with their exterior webs partly white. 



Total length about 12 inches ; wing, 6.50 ; culmen, 1.10 ; tarsus, 1.90 ; middle 

 toe, 1.00. 



This " Tattler," or as it is more commonly called by sportsmen, " Upland or 

 Field plover," is pretty plentifully distributed throughout the United States, also 

 in South America. It breeds in the States along Lake Erie and north — said to be 

 very common on the Saskatchewan plains. It breeds regularly along the north 

 shore of Lake Erie, in probably all of the southern counties of Ontario. Although 

 a wader it seldom wades, preferring dry pastures and ])loughed fields near the 

 water, living upon crickets, grasshoppers and other small insects, upon which it 

 grows very fat. 



It is then considered a great delicacy for the table. In Ontario it is generally 

 found in small flocks of from six to eight. Unlike many others of the family it 

 is very fond of alighting on the fence, but is mainly a terrestrial bird. The nest 

 of this bird is always upon the ground, and usually contains four eggs. The 

 Upland Plover generally reaches Ontario early in April, and leaves about the first 

 of October. 



