feARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER. 1 65 



well as westward on either side of the Mississippi. Scattering 

 broods and nests made in dry meadows are not uncommon a 

 few miles from Salem, where Mr. N. West informs me he saw 

 the young just fledged during the present season (1833) in 

 the month of July. 



While here they feed much upon grasshoppers, which now 

 abound in every field, and become so plump as to weigh up- 

 wards of three quarters of a pound. They keep together usu- 

 ally in broods or small companies, not in gregarious swarms 

 like the Sandpipers, and when approached are, like Plovers, 

 silent, shy, and watchful, so that it requires some address to 

 approach them within gunshot. They run fast, the older 

 birds sometimes dropping their wings and spreading the tail, 

 as if attempting to decoy the spectator from paying attention 

 to their brood. On alighting they stand erect, remain still, 

 and on any alarm utter three or four sharp, querulous whistling 

 notes as they mount to fly. In the pastures they familiarly 

 follow or feed around the cattle, and can generally be best 

 approached from a cart or wagon ; for though very wary of man, 

 they have but little apprehension of danger in the company of 

 domestic animals. In August the roving families now ap- 

 proach the vicinity of the sea, resorting to feed and roost in 

 the contiguous dry fields. In the morning as they fly high in 

 the air in straggling lines, their short warbling whistle is some- 

 times heard high overhead, while proceeding inland to feed, 

 and the same note is renewed in the evening as they pass to 

 their roosts. It is also very probable that this is usually the 

 time they employ in their migrations to the South, which com- 

 mence here early in September and by the middle of that 

 month a few stragglers only are found. 



The Upland Plover is still abundant in New England during the 

 migrations, and some breed here ; but in the Maritime Provinces 

 the bird is uncommon, and it has not been taken on the north side 

 of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is rarely met with in the region 

 of the Great Lakes, but is very abundant on the western plains, 

 where the birds congregate in immense flocks, — "sometimes in 

 thousands." Their winter home is on the pampas of the Argen- 

 tine I public. 



