636 SCOLOPACID.E. 



first discovered by Vieillot, in the tlicn territory of Louis- 

 iana, so that, coursing along the shores of the Mississippi, 

 and thus penetrating inland, it probably proceeds, as well as 

 in the vicinity of the sea coast, to its northern destination to 

 breed, and is often here associated with the Pectoral Sand- 

 piper, which it resembles very much in size and bill, though 

 perfectly distinct in plumage. Its food, while here, consists 

 principally of land and marine insects, particularly grasshop- 

 pers, which abounding in the autumn, become the favourite 

 prey of a variety of birds." Vol. ii. p. 113. 



The fisrure in Mr. Audubon's work was taken from an 

 American specimen, procured at Boston. I regret, however, 

 says the author, " that I can say nothing respecting the 

 habits or haunts of this bird, farther than, that having seen 

 a wing of it in the possession of my friend Captain James 

 Clark Ross, I think it probable that it breeds near the Arctic 

 Circle, as he received the wing from the sailors, who had 

 found it in the course of one of the numerous inland ex- 

 cursions in the desolate regions, from which these intrepid 

 navigators have recently returned." 



This species is readily distinguished from all the other 

 birds of this genus by the peculiar markings of the under 

 surface of the wings. 



The plumage and the state of the ossification of the tarsi, 

 prove my specimen to be a young bird of the year ; the spe- 

 cimen obtained at Sherringham, of which Mr. John Sims 

 sent me a coloured drawing, and Mr. Heysham's example, 

 I believe to be also young birds, but whether they had wan- 

 dered from the north eastern shores of America to the Arctic 

 portion of Lapland, and had from thence accompanied the 

 Dotterell, or other birds, in their southern autumnal visit 

 to this country, or had been bred in the marshes of the coun- 

 ties in which they were killed, can only be conjectured. M. 

 Nilsson docs not include it in his Fauna of Scandinavia. 



