BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER. 



ScOLOPACIDiE.] 



BARTRAMIA LONGICAUDA (Bechstein). 



Explanation of Plate. 



This American Sandpiper is a rare accidental visitor, there being a few 

 records of its occurrence in England and one in Ireland. 



^o-^ 



Dr. Coues writes *: — " Bartram's Tattler, or the 'Upland Plover,' as it is generally 

 called by sportsmen, is a bird of wide and general dispersion in the Western 

 Hemisphere, while its casual occurrence in Europe is attested, and it is even 

 stated to have been found in Australia. It inhabits at different seasons nearly all 

 of North America, and in winter pushes its migration even to Central and South 

 America, as well as into the West Indies. But it has not, to my knowledge, been 

 found in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains. It occurs in summer 

 as far north as the Yukon, though thousands of the birds also breed within the 

 limits of the United States. 



" On its presence and movements in the East I have made few observations, 

 and know nothing beyond the general items familiar to all sportsmen who, with 

 good reason, consider the Upland Plover, or Grass Plover, as a prime game bird, 

 wild and difficult to secure, best hunted from a carriage, and capital for the table. 

 It is said to breed from the middle districts, as in Illinois and Pennsylvania, 

 northward. The principal shooting is done in August and September, as the 

 birds move southward by the end of the latter month. 



" In most parts of the West, between the Mississippi and the Rocky 

 Mountains, this Tattler, commonly known as the ' Prairie Pigeon,' is exceedingly 

 abundant during the migrations — more so than I can suppose it to be in settled 



* ' Birds of the North-West,' pp. 50a-505. 



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