SOLITARY SANDPIPER 201 



SOLITARY SANDPIPER 



Rhyacophilus solitarius 



Middle toe nearly as long as tarsus. Above dark olivaceous grey, 

 with blacker markings and slightly speckled with white ; upper tail- 

 coverts blackish, barred with white ; tail white with blackish bars ; 

 beneath white ; sides of neck and breast streaked and barred with 

 dusky grey ; under wing-coverts blackish, barred with white ; length 

 8.5, wing 5 inches. Female similar. 



THE well-known and well-named Solitary Sandpiper 

 arrives later than the other birds of its family in La 

 Plata, and differs greatly from them in its habits, 

 avoiding the wet plains and muddy margins of 

 lagoons and marshes where they mostly congregate, 

 and making its home at the side of a small pool well 

 sheltered by its banks, or by trees and herbage, and 

 with a clear margin on which it can run freely. As 

 long as there is any water in its chosen pool, though 

 it may be only a small puddle at the bottom of a 

 ditch, the bird will remain by it in solitary content- 

 ment. When approached it runs rapidly along the 

 margin, pausing at intervals to bob its head, in which 

 habit it resembles the Totanus or Yellowshanks, and 

 emitting sharp little clicks of alarm. Finally, taking 

 flight, it utters its peculiar and delightful cry, a long 

 note thrice repeated, of so clear and penetrating a 

 character that it seems almost too fine and bright 

 a sound even for so wild and aerial a creature as a 

 bird. 



The flight is exceedingly rapid and wild, the bird 

 rising high and darting this way and that, uttering 



