2 SCOLOPACID^. 



The late Dr. T. M, Brewer writes as follows respecting the nesting habits of 

 this species * : — " The nests of this bird vary in their position and construction. 

 As far as I have noted them, they have been in some small depression, in the 

 ground, often sheltered by being placed near a small bush or in a tuft of grass. 

 They are, for the most part, built in the dry open field, never very far from water. 

 Usually they are of very simple structure, being made of dry bent, and answering 

 the purpose of protecting the eggs from the damp ground, but rarely so well 

 interwoven as to bear removal. Mr. Audubon states that the nests of this bird 

 found by him on an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence were much more bulky, 

 and more neatly constructed, than any seen by him farther south, yet not to be 

 compared with those he had seen in Labrador, where they were concealed under 

 ledges of rocks and were made of dry moss, raised to the height of several inches, 

 and well finished within with slender grasses and feathers of the Eider Duck. 

 The time of nesting varies three months from Texas to Labrador. On Buffalo 

 Bayou in Texas, Audubon found full-grown broods on the 5th of May. In 

 Newfoundland they were only just fledged on the 11th of August. 



" The young run about with remarkable ease and swiftness almost as soon as 

 they are out of their shell. When danger approaches they immediately, upon an 

 alarm-signal from their parents, run and hide themselves, squatting close to 

 the ground, and there remaining perfectly immovable, resembling a small 

 drab-coloured stone with a single streak of black down the middle. If the 

 young bird finds itself discovered, and an attempt is made to take it, it runs with 

 great celerity, uttering the most plaintive cries, and at the same time the parents 

 exhibit symptoms of distress and counterfeit lameness with great skill. . . . 



" The eggs are always foiu* in number, and are of a rounded pyriform shape, 

 varying in length from 1-21 inches to 1'35, and in breadth from '95 to 1*00 inch. 

 Their ground-color varies from a light drab to a dark cream, sometimes tinged 

 with rufous, and occasionally with a muddy clay-color. The markings in some 

 are fine dottings, and in others large and confluent blotches about the larger end. 

 The color of the markings is a rich sepia-brown, with a slight purplish tinge." 



Audubon gives the following interesting narrative respecting this species f : — 

 " My esteemed friend Thomas Macculloch of Pictou, Nova Scotia, having 

 transmitted to me a curious account of the attachment of one of these birds to 

 her eggs, I here insert it with pleasure : ' Being on an excursion to the Hardwood 

 Heights, which rise to the west of Pictou, my attention Avas attracted by the 



* ' Water Birds of North America,' vol. i. p. 304. 

 t ' Ornithological Biography,' vol. iv. p. 84. 



