THE BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER. 529 
feeling akin to uncanniness. Where is the bird! Another call gives the direc- 
tion, and you stand staring into the southern sky until in the distance, far up, 
a quivering speck appears, approaches, passes onward, anon scattering broad- 
cast the rolling whistle, without an added tremor of the wings. The bird 
seems a monster—at least the size of a large hawk—but the long, slender 
neck, small head, and almost no tail, are unmistakable. I have often won- 
dered if the birds ever use their wings as other birds do. I have never seen 
more than the slight quivering, or the motionless soaring. The slight move- 
ment of the long wings certainly adds to the ethereal appearance of the bird, 
which seems to float free in the air, usually with a slow forward motion. 
The rolling cry is not unlike the rolling call of a tree-toad, but of a dif- 
ferent quality and calibre, which makes it unmistakable. The whistle is 
partly double, the first part passing upward nearly half an octave, terminating 
abruptly there, the second part beginning where the first began and rapidly 
swelling through nearly or quite an octave, then gradually falling again and 
decreasing in volume to the close, several tones above the beginning. ‘The 
first part of the whistle is usually rattling or trilled, and sometimes the trill is 
carried to the end, but oftener it becomes a clear whistle before the culmina- 
tion, and continues clear to the end. Tvre-e-e-c-e-c-c-e-e, tre-e-e-e-e-e- 
€-€-€-C-e-C-e-€-€-e-p ; or tr-1-1-1-e-e-e-e-c-c-c-p. Often the whistled part is never 
reached, but the call stops as if interrupted by some threatened danger. 
In northern Ohio the birds make their nests in the midst of a pasture 
or meadow, often without more than a few stray grass blades lining the slight 
depression in the ground. In more rolling recions the nest seems to be placed 
preferably on a hilltop, or on a side-hill; but in any region an open field is 
essential to the welfare of the eggs and young. 
In the autumn the birds select some side-hill, apparently no better than 
any of a dozen or more in the region, where they pass the night, or gather 
to visit during the day. They seem to be very much attached to that especial 
side-hill, and will have no other, even at the risk of life. 
Probably the bird is better known throughout the state as the Upland 
Plover, or Meadow Plover or Sandpiper, or the Whistling Plover. While it 
is a true sandpiper in structure, its habits resemble the plover group. It 
gleans rather than probes the mud for food, eating grass seeds and weed vege- 
tation. It is not wary, generally, but is too confiding. One may approach 
within a dozen yards of the birds, and even when they finally take wing they 
are more than likely to fly directly over you. 
LyNps JONES. 
