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416 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
and tipped with rufous; very young have upper parts light-gray, with a longitudinal 
band on the head and back, black; under parts white. 
Total length, about nine and a half inches; wing, six and a half inches; tail, 
three and a half inches. 
Hab. — North America to the Arctic regions, Mexico, South America. 
This species is pretty generally distributed throughout 
New England as a summer resident. It is not common in 
any localities, but seems to be found in pairs all along our 
seacoast; and, although occasionally breeding in the inte- 
rior of these States, in the neighborhood of large tracts of 
water, it is almost exclusively found, during the greater 
part of the year, in moist fields and meadows and sandy 
pastures, within a few miles of the sea. Wilson describes 
its habits as follows :— 
“This restless and noisy bird is known to almost every inhabi- 
tant of the United States, being a common and pretty constant 
resident. During the severity of the winter, when snow covers 
the ground, it retreats to the seashore, where it is found at all 
seasons; but no sooner have the rivers opened, than its shrill 
note is again heard, either roaming about high in air, tracing the 
shore of the river, or running amidst the watery flats and meadows. 
As spring advances, it resorts to the newly ploughed fields, or level 
plains bare of grass, interspersed with shallow pools; or, in the 
vicinity of the sea, dry, bare, sandy fields. In some such situation 
it generally chooses to breed, about the beginning of May. The 
nest is usually slight, a mere hollow, with such materials drawn in 
around it as happen to be near, such as bits of sticks, straw, peb- 
‘bles, or earth. In one instance, I found the nest of the bird 
paved with fragments of clam and oyster shells, and very neatly 
. surrounded with a mound, or border, of the same, placed in a very 
close and curious manner. In some cases, there is no vestige 
whatever of a nest. The eggs are usually four, of a bright rich 
cream or yellowish-clay color, thickly marked with blotches of 
black. ‘They are large for the size of the bird, measuring more 
than an inch and a half in length, and a full inch in width, taper- 
ing to a narrow point at the great end. 
“Nothing can exceed the alarm and anxiety of these birds 
during the breeding season. Their cries of hill-deer, kill-deer, as 
