634 SCOLOPACIIXE. 



Some remarks by Mr. Gould furnish interesting ad- 

 ditional evidence. " This is only the second instance that 

 has come under my notice of its occurrence in England, 

 and the species must now be included in our Fauna. The 

 other British specimen was killed in Warwickshire a year 

 or two ago, and is now in the collection of Lord Wil- 

 loughby de Broke, at Comp ton Verney, near Stratford-on- 

 Avon. Continental writers have long noticed Bartram's 

 Sandpiper as an occasional visitor to Europe ; but the 

 only instances of its having been found in England are 

 those now mentioned. I have lately received, from the 

 Directors of the Museum at Sydney, in New South 

 Wales, a specimen of this bird, which had been killed 

 near Botany Bay. This is the first, and at present the 

 only known, instance of its capture in Australia. The 

 species is evidently a great wanderer, its true habitat being 

 the northern portions of America, from Canada throughout 

 the United States, to Mexico ; in all which countries it is 

 very common." 



Wilson, who is considered to be the discoverer and first 

 describer of this species, which he dedicated by name to 

 his venerable friend Bartram, near whose botanic gardens, 

 on the banks of the River Schuylkill, he first found it, 

 says of it, " Unlike most of their tribe, these birds ap- 

 peared to prefer running about among the grass, feeding 

 on beetles and other winged insects. Never having met 

 with them on the sea-shore, I am persuaded that their 

 principal residence is in the interior, in meadows and such 

 like places. They run with great rapidity, sometimes 

 spreading their tail and dropping their wings, as birds do 

 who wish to decoy you from their nest ; when they alight 

 they remain fixed, stand very erect, and give two or three 

 sharp whistling notes as they mount to fly. They are 

 remarkably plump birds, weighing upwards of three 



