BARTRAM'S SANDPIPER. 635 



quarters of a pound ; their flesh is superior, in point of 

 delicacy, tenderness, and flavour, to any other of the tribe 

 with which I am acquainted." 



Sir John Richardson says, " this bird was only seen by 

 us on the plains of the Saskatchewan, in May, 1827. It 

 feeds on coleopterous insects." 



Audubon did not observe this species in Newfoundland 

 or Labrador, but records it as found as far south as 

 Mexico ; in the western prairies on either side of the Mis- 

 souri ; in different parts of Pennsylvania, and as far east- 

 ward as the confines of Maine. It appeared to be partial 

 to frequenting newly -ploughed lands, and its food, varied 

 with the district, consisted of grasshoppers, beetles, seeds, 

 and wild strawberries. Nests were found in hollows 

 scooped out in the earth, sometimes lined with loosely- 

 arranged grasses, and the eggs are described as measuring 

 one inch and six-eighths in length by one inch and a 

 quarter in breadth, of a dull greyish yellow ground 

 colour, with numerous spots of light purple and reddish 

 brown. 



This species is twelve inches long: the bill one inch 

 and a half, slightly bent downwards at the point, upper 

 mandible nearly black, under mandible yellow; irides 

 dusky ; the forehead, over the eye, neck, and breast, pale 

 ferruginous, marked with small streaks of black, which 

 on the lower part of the breast assume the form of arrow- 

 heads ; chin, orbit of the eye, belly, and vent, white ; hind 

 head and neck ferruginous, minutely streaked with black ; 

 back and scapulars black, the former edged with ferru- 

 ginous, the latter with white, the tertials black, edged 

 with white ; primaries black, the shaft of the outer quill 

 whitish, the inner vane pectinated with white ; secondaries 

 pale brown, spotted on the outer vanes with black and 

 tipped with white; greater coverts dusky, edged with 



