THE SHORE BIRDS. 209 



wholly disappear. I have known two, three, and 

 four minutes to elapse, and then, like lightning 

 from a clear sky, the bird would suddenly reappear, 

 touching the ground lightly with its dainty feet and 

 raising its wings straight up above its back, as if to 

 celebrate the victory of having escaped and returned 

 in safety. Again and again I have flushed the poor 

 solitary, and it invariably flew two or three miles, I 

 judge, before returning. 



There has been from time to time some discussion 

 of the habits of this bird so far as its breeding is 

 concerned. Speaking for the Delaware River Valley, 

 I can ^say that while the bird is migratory and might 

 by casual observers be considered as generally so, a 

 few do remain within the limits of Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey during the summer. I have seen them 

 during the months of June and July in both the 

 States mentioned, and I found a pair once in great 

 distress because an enormous bull-frog had swallowed 

 their newly-born young. It is foolish for theoretical 

 ornithologists to dispute such statements. There is 

 no possibility of any one mistaking this bird for any 

 other, and as I have known the two species well and 

 for many years, it borders on the ridiculous to sug- 

 gest that the two the spotted and the solitary were 

 confounded. 



A beautiful upland and dry-ground sand-piper is 

 well known to many as the Grass Plover, an unfor- 

 tunate name, as it is not a true plover, and it is also 

 called Bartram's Tattler. " It inhabits at different 

 seasons nearly all of North America, and in winter 

 pushes its migration even to Central and South 



