SOLITARY SANDPIPER 201 
SOLITARY SANDPIPER 
Rhyacophilus solitarius 
Middle toe nearly as long as tarsus. Above dark olivaceous grey, 
with blacker markings and slightly speckled with white; upper tail- 
coverts blackish, barred with white; tail white with blackish bars ; 
beneath white; sides of neck and breast streaked and barred with 
dusky grey; under wing-coverts blackish, barred with white; length 
8.5, wing 5 inches. Female similar. 
THE well-known and well-named Solitary Sandpiper 
arrives later than the other birds of its family in La 
Plata, and differs greatly from them in its habits, 
avoiding the wet plains and muddy margins of 
lagoons and marshes where they mostly congregate, 
and making its home at the side of a small pool well 
sheltered by its banks, or by trees and herbage, and 
with a clear margin on which it can run freely. As 
long as there is any water in its chosen pool, though 
it may be only a small puddle at the bottom of a 
ditch, the bird will remain by it in solitary content- 
ment. When approached it runs rapidly along the 
margin, pausing at intervals to bob its head, in which 
habit it resembles the Totanus or Yellowshanks, and 
emitting sharp little clicks of alarm. Finally, taking 
flight, it utters its peculiar and delightful cry, a long 
note thrice repeated, of so clear and penetrating a 
character that it seems almost too fine and bright 
a sound even for so wild and aerial a creature as a 
bird. 
The flight is exceedingly rapid and wild, the bird 
rising high and darting this way and that, uttering 
